Affhan Shipping
Sea and air freight, customs clearance and inland delivery, run out of our own offices in 7 countries. The same team that sources your goods can move them.
The goods leave on our instruction, not the supplier's.
A supplier arranging its own pickup books to its own convenience, and the first anyone hears of a delay is when the vessel has sailed without the cargo. Our Guangzhou desk holds the booking, confirms the goods are finished and packed, and releases the truck when they are. If two suppliers are feeding one shipment, they arrive at our warehouse rather than at the port on different days.
Where most of the cost is decided, and almost none of the attention goes.
Cartons are measured and re-palletised if the layout wastes space — a carton size that loses a third of a pallet is a third of a container you paid for and did not use. The export declaration, certificates of origin, fumigation and packing lists are prepared against the HS code the destination will actually assess. Getting that code wrong does not stop the goods leaving China; it stops them entering the country they are going to.
LCL, FCL, or wings — whichever the stock maths argues for.
LCL for a part load, FCL when the volume justifies a box of its own, air when six weeks of stock sitting on water costs more than the freight bill does. We are an NVOCC, so the contract with the line is ours and the bill of lading carries our name — the booking stays ours to answer for rather than passing down a chain of agents. You are told the vessel, the cut-off and the sailing, and told again if any of them move.
Cleared by the people who wrote the export papers.
A query from customs at the destination is answered by someone holding the file, not by an agent who received a container number and a phone call. Duties, port charges and any inspection are handled as part of the job rather than surfacing afterwards as costs nobody mentioned. Doing both ends is the whole point of doing either.
The inland leg is in the quote, not added at the end.
This is the stage that most often turns a cheap quote into an expensive one. Freight to port is the number people compare; the run from port to warehouse is the number they find out about later. Goods arrive at your door, and the file closes with the same company that opened it.
FCL and LCL out of Chinese and Indian ports, consolidated where a part load does not justify a container of its own.
For cargo where the holding cost of six weeks at sea outweighs the freight bill.
We issue our own bills of lading and carry the contract with the line, so the booking stays ours to answer for.
Documentation and clearance at both ends, handled by the same people who booked the freight.
Factory floor to your warehouse, including the inland legs that usually get quoted separately and forgotten.
Hold goods from several suppliers and ship them as one, rather than paying for each shipment on its own.
Most importers hold two relationships: a sourcing agent who stops at the factory gate, and a forwarder who picks up a shipment they know nothing about. When something is wrong with the cargo, neither one owns it.
We do both. The people who inspected your goods are the people who booked the container, so a query about either has one answer and one place to go.
Talk to the shipping desk26+
Years in business
7
Offices worldwide
Sea & air
Freight modes
NVOCC
Own bills of lading
Four things, in roughly this order. Volume, because you are charged for the space whether or not you fill it — which is why carton dimensions are worth an argument before production, not after. Mode, because air is a multiple of sea and worth it only when the stock is earning more than it costs to fly.
Lane, because the same box to Chennai, Jebel Ali and Felixstowe is three different prices with three different customs regimes behind it. And how much of the job is in the quote: a freight-to-port number and a door-to-door number are not comparable, and the gap between them is the part that arrives as a surprise.
Air freight looks indefensible next to a sea quote until you price the stock. A container on the water is capital you cannot sell for the length of the sailing, plus whatever a stockout costs in orders you could not fill.
For high-value, low-volume goods, or a first production run you need in market before committing to a full container, the freight premium is often smaller than the cost of waiting. For heavy, low-margin goods it almost never is. We will tell you which one you are looking at.
4.8 out of 5, across 144 Google reviews
The profile is held at our Chennai head office, trading since 2000. Seven offices — Chennai, Guangzhou, Dubai, Singapore, Melaka, London and Paris — each a registered company with its own staff, not an agent on a commission.
Port to port, on the three lanes where we have our own office at both ends: China to Chennai (Chennai) around 20 days, China to Dubai (Jebel Ali) around 25 days, China to the UK (Felixstowe) around 45 days. Those are typical sailings rather than guarantees — the service matters, and a transhipment can add a week on its own. We quote the actual vessel, sailing and cut-off for your booking, because a figure that ignores your port pair is not useful for planning.
A forwarder arranges carriage on your behalf and the contract sits between you and the shipping line. An NVOCC takes the contract itself and issues its own bill of lading, then buys the space from the line. Affhan is an NVOCC, so the booking is ours to answer for — if something moves, you are dealing with the company that holds the contract rather than being passed to the carrier.
Yes, and with the same team. Export documentation, certificates of origin and the HS classification are prepared in China; the import entry, duties and any inspection are handled at the destination. The reason to do both is that a customs query on arrival is answered by someone who already has the file.
FCL is a container of your own. LCL is a share of one, consolidated with other shipments — cheaper outright, but charged by volume and with handling at both ends. Past roughly half a container the economics usually turn. Where the volume sits near that line we quote both rather than choosing for you.
Yes. Sourcing and freight are separate services and plenty of customers use only the second. If you have your own suppliers we collect from them, consolidate if there are several, and carry the shipment from there.
Collection from the supplier, export clearance, the main freight leg, import clearance, duties handled, and the inland run to your warehouse. That definition is worth checking against any quote you compare us with: "door to door" is used loosely, and the inland leg is the part most often left out of the number people compare.
When the stock costs more to wait for than to fly. A container on the water is capital you cannot sell for several weeks, plus whatever a stockout costs in orders you could not fill. For high-value, low-volume goods, or a first production run you need in market before committing to a full container, the freight premium is often smaller than the cost of waiting. For heavy, low-margin goods it almost never is.
Yes. Warehousing and consolidation are part of the service, which matters when several suppliers are feeding one shipment, or when production finishes before you want the goods to arrive. Holding them and shipping once is usually cheaper than paying for each shipment on its own.
Own offices, not agents — which is why a problem at one end can be settled by someone at the other.
AFFHAN INTERNATIONAL PVT LTD
Appavoo Tower West, 69/46, 3, S Madha Church Street, near Harbour Gate, Royapuram
Chennai 600013
GUANGZHOU AFFHAN INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
Room 2325, Canton Domestic Finance Centre, No.316 Chang Di Da Ma Lu
Guangzhou
AFFHAN SHIPPING LLC
White Crown Building, Office 203, Sheikh Zayed Road, Trade Centre 1
Dubai PO Box 7184
AFFHAN INTERNATIONAL PTE. LTD.
10 Jalan Besar, #08-11 Sim Lim Tower
Singapore 208787
AFFHAN INTERNATIONAL LTD
34 Monarch Parade, London Road
Mitcham CR4 3HA
Tell us the ports, the cargo and the timing, and we will come back with a rate and a routing.
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