Shipping Roofing Slate Internationally: The Handover Map from Our Factory to Your Roof

Part of the Roofing Slate Guide's Buying & Importing section — the transport half of the import story whose pricing half is in How to Compare Roofing Slate Quotations, and whose scheduling half is in Roofing Slate Lead Times.

Let me be the one to say it: the slate itself is the easy part. I book the containers for a Jiujiang factory that ships roofing slate to thirty-plus countries, and the phone calls that go sideways are never about the stone — they're about the boxes. A container sitting at a port because the weight on the packing list doesn't match the manifest. A bill of lading that can't be released because the balance payment hasn't cleared. A customer who assumed "CIF" meant "delivered to my door" and found out it means "you still pay the truck."

This is the handover map. I've been moving slate in 20ft boxes for twelve years, and the six handovers below are the whole journey. Read them once, and your first import stops being a gamble and starts being a series of small, checkable steps. The slate will cross the sea fine — the part that goes wrong is the handover between people, and that's the part you can plan.

The Six Handovers: The Whole Journey in One Map

Every international slate shipment is the same six handovers, no matter which port. Learn the six, and you can see any shipment for what it is — a chain of owners and papers:

The point of the map isn't to impress you with ports. It's to show you where your control begins and ends. Until handover 3, the supplier and the port own the slate. Between 3 and 5, the shipping line owns it — and you own the paper that represents it. After 5, it's yours, and the arrival inspection is the first thing to run on your own doorstep.

Now, the two things that decide who pays, who's responsible, and who answers for a scratched crate: the Incoterm and the bill of lading. Get those two, and the six handovers fall into place.

Incoterms for Slate: FOB, CIF and What Each Letter Really Buys

Incoterms are the official names for who does what in an international sale. For roofing slate you'll meet two of them in nearly every quotation: FOB and CIF.

Here's the honest, non-lawyer version — and a correction that surprises most first-time buyers:

FOB (Free On Board) — say the port of loading. Under FOB, the supplier's job ends when the crates are loaded on board the ship at the named port — for Chinese slate, usually Shanghai or Ningbo. From that moment, the risk and the freight are yours: you book the vessel, pay the ocean freight, insure the cargo, and handle everything after the ship arrives at your port.

CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight) — say the port of destination. Under CIF, the supplier also arranges and pays the ocean freight and buys a minimum marine insurance, all bundled into the quoted price. The destination port charges, customs, duties and the inland truck to your site are still yours.

Now the part that matters, and the part that catches most buyers: the risk line does NOT move to the destination under CIF. The risk passes at the same moment under both terms — when the cargo crosses the ship's rail at the port of loading. What changes with CIF is the cost line, not the risk line. The supplier pays the freight and buys the insurance, but if the container is dropped on the dock in Shanghai, the loss is still on you — covered by the insurance they bought (or not, if it's the minimum). That single misreading of "CIF = I'm covered" is behind more broken-slate arguments than any other sentence in shipping.

So when a quotation says CIF, read it as the price includes freight and minimum insurance, never as they'll bring it to my door. The quotation guide walks the whole cost stack; here, the term you choose decides who books the vessel and who names the date.

Which should a first-time importer choose? My honest answer — and it's the one I give everyone who's new to this:

Start with CIF for the first order, then switch to FOB once you know the drill. CIF puts the freight in the supplier's hands, which means fewer moving parts while you're learning the process. After that first container, FOB with your own freight forwarder usually works out cheaper and gives you control over the sailing date — and it lets you collect the one thing that matters most for a smooth port: a real arrival date.

The Bill of Lading: the Paper That Is the Cargo

You can't touch a crate at sea, so the shipping line issues a document that stands in for it: the bill of lading (B/L). It's three things at once: a receipt for the cargo, a contract with the carrier, and — most importantly — the title to the goods. Whoever holds the original B/L holds the crate, in law. When the balance of payment is done, the supplier hands over the B/L, and the ownership of the 20ft box crosses the desk along with it.

Two terms you'll hear:

• Original B/L — the physical paper the banks and customs want; usually three originals, and the shipping line honours only one. This is why "where's my B/L?" is the final question before the crate can move.
• Telex release — the electronic version. With a telex release, no paper crosses the world; the shipping line's system simply shows the cargo released to the named receiver. Faster and safer than trusting paper through the post, and for most slate shipments it's the sensible default once the balance is cleared.

The B/L and the packing list must tell the same story — same crate count, same weight, same batch. When they drift apart, the port notices, and the container waits. The crate standards guide and the test report guide both talk about the same discipline from the crate side: the label, the list and the B/L are one set of numbers.

And if a freight forwarder says "we'll issue the B/L to you after the balance clears," that's not suspicious, that's normal. The B/L is the lever that holds the cargo; the balance is what unlocks it. When you see the numbers match, the crate starts to roll.

Port Charges, Customs and the Last Truck: the Legs You Can't Guess

The ocean leg is the visible one — but the money that actually surprises slate buyers hides in the smaller legs:

• Inland freight to the port. A "FOB Shanghai" quote that comes from a Jiujiang factory includes the 600+ km truck to Shanghai or Ningbo. Ask for the line, because $0.40–$0.70 per m² moves a quote ranking fast.
• Port handling (THC). Terminal handling charges at the port of loading — $100–$200 per container, sometimes inside FOB, sometimes not. Ask.
• Destination port charges. At your end: THC again, plus any demurrage (the fee for leaving the container beyond the free days) and detention (for the box itself). A few days' port delay can cost more than the whole freight difference you negotiated.
• Customs, duties, VAT. Slate is usually a low-duty product in the EU and UK, but VAT and clearance fees are still a line item — and the paperwork pack (invoice, packing list, B/L, certificate of origin, possibly a phytosanitary certificate) has its own small cost, $50–$150 if the supplier charges for it.
• The inland truck from the destination port. Port to your warehouse can be another $200–$500 depending on distance, and it's entirely yours to arrange unless you've agreed a DDP-style term.

Sum those and you'll see why "CIF" and "to my door" are different conversations. The MOQ guide shows how the same fixed fees make small LCL loads pricey; the square-metres-per-container page shows the weight ceiling that fixes the 20ft size. For this page, remember: a 20ft container of 6–8 mm slate is a weight-limited crate, not a volume-limited one. The ocean leg is 25–40 days to Europe, about 20–30 to a US West Coast port, and the whole order lands on your roof in roughly 10–12 weeks from the day the deposit clears.

If the Crate Is Scratched or Wet: the Claims Road

No one wants to start the claims road, but it's why the handover map is worth drawing in the first place. Two windows decide everything:

• The carrier window. The shipping line's liability for visible damage is written in the B/L — usually you have to note damage on the delivery receipt the day the container arrives, and file within 3–7 days of delivery. Miss it, and the line will fairly say the container left the last port in good order.
• The supplier window. Your contract's claim period — often the same days-from-receipt. The breakage allowance guide explains the 1–3% threshold and who owns the broken pieces; the discipline here is the same as the inspection: photograph the crate before the straps are cut, keep the damaged crates separate, count pieces with the packing list open.

The honest truth is that a well-crated, well-stuffed 20ft container of slate usually arrives with 1–3% breakage and rarely more. LCL freight — where your crates share a box — runs 4–5%, because it's handled twice more. That's the reason the pre-shipment inspection before loading matters: a claim about breakage is a claim about who broke it, and the inspection photos on the day the container sealed are the only evidence that says "it wasn't the factory."

The Shipping Checklist: Seven Lines to Put on Every Order

So what do you actually do with all this? Print this and tape it to your desk. Every one of these is a line you can put on the order, and every one costs nothing:

1. Name the Incoterm and the port. "FOB Shanghai" or "CIF Felixstowe" — not "shipping included."
2. Ask for the freight line broken out. Ocean freight and minimum insurance visible on the invoice, so you can see the margin.
3. Fix the risk line. "Risk transfers at the port of loading in all cases" — so there's no surprise at the destination.
4. Get the B/L release in writing. Original or telex release, and who handles it after balance clears.
5. Confirm the documentation pack. Invoice, packing list, B/L, certificate of origin, and any phytosanitary or test report — with the batch number matching the crates.
6. State the claims window. 3–7 days from delivery to notify the carrier, and the same for the supplier — in the contract, not in a handshake.
7. Book the arrival inspection. The inspection checklist is the plan for the day the truck backs up to your dock.

That's it. The sea is the easy part; the handovers are the plot. Set the map up, own the paper, and the only thing you'll be surprised by is how uninteresting a smooth slate shipment is — which is exactly what you want from a box that crossed an ocean to sit on your roof for a hundred years.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Reading

• Roofing Slate Lead Times — the week-by-week calendar that turns a sailing into a plan
• How to Compare Roofing Slate Quotations — normalising FOB and CIF quotes to the same language
• Roofing Slate Packaging and Crate Standards — the ISPM 15 crate and the packing list that keeps the port moving
• Pre-Shipment Inspection Checklist — the sealed-container proof that makes the claims road easy
• Understanding Breakage Allowance — the 1–3% threshold and the LCL 4–5% that defines the claim