Selection Guide · 12 min read · Updated 2026-10-12
Importing Cable from China: A Buyer's Step-by-Step Guide
Most bad experiences importing cable start before the enquiry is sent, with an RFQ that does not say what the cable has to do. That produces two quotations that look different in price and are different in product, and no way to tell them apart. This guide covers the eight data points an RFQ must contain, the documents that prove what was made, the inspection options and what each one catches, and the freight, packing and payment decisions that follow.
What actually decides the price per metre
Copper is the first cost in a power cable and often the largest, and it is priced against a metal exchange. That is why a serious quotation states the copper price it was calculated from and the period it is valid for. A price quoted on the 1st is not the same price on the 30th, and a supplier who does not say which copper price was used is not giving you something you can compare against another offer.
After the metal come the construction and the performance requirements: the conductor material, the insulation and sheath compounds, the armour, the fire performance and the number of cores. Then manufacturing reality: the minimum order quantity per size, the lengths per drum, and the packaging. Finally the commercial terms: the exchange rate, the freight, the duty that the buyer pays in their own country, and the documents. Voltcore quotes against a stated copper price with a validity period, at 500 m per size minimum, in 15 to 25 working days from a confirmed order.
- The metal price the quotation was calculated from, and how long it holds
- Construction: conductor material and class, insulation, armour, sheath
- Performance: the standards and the fire, smoke or UV requirements
- Commercial: minimum order quantity, drum lengths, packing, Incoterm and payment
- Chasing the lowest price per metre with no standard attached to it is how a container of the wrong cable gets shipped
The 8 data points every RFQ must contain
An RFQ that contains these eight can be quoted accurately and, more importantly, can be checked when the cable arrives. Each one is a place where two suppliers can honestly offer different products at different prices, so leaving one out makes the offers incomparable. The list is short by design; anything else is a detail that can be settled afterwards.
The last two are the ones most often omitted, and they are the ones that decide whether the shipment can be installed and certified. Many buyers ask for the cable type and the quantity and then wait for the price, which returns an offer that satisfies them right up to the point where the inspector asks for a Declaration of Performance or the site cannot get the drum through a door.
| Data point | Why it changes the price or the product | What a good entry looks like |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Type and standard | The standard sets the dimensions, the materials and the tests | YJV22 to IEC 60502-1, or equivalent to GB/T 12706.1 |
| 2. Voltage rating | Determines insulation thickness and the test voltage | 0.6/1 kV, or 8.7/15 kV for MV |
| 3. Conductor | Material and class decide the current rating and the flexibility | Class 2 stranded copper to IEC 60228, 95 mm² |
| 4. Cores and configuration | Changes the lay-up, the OD and the copper content | 4 cores, or 3 + 1 with a 50 mm² neutral, or 5 cores equal |
| 5. Sheath and fire performance | PVC, PE and LSZH differ in cost and in the tests required | LSZH sheath, IEC 60332-3-24 category C, IEC 60754-1 and 60754-2 |
| 6. Quantities and lengths | MOQ per size and the drum length drive the line setup | 3,000 m per size in 500 m drums, or cut to 125 m lengths |
| 7. Application conditions | Determines armour, UV resistance, water blocking and the bending radius | Direct burial in 2.5 K·m/W soil, ambient 45 °C, 12 × OD bends |
| 8. Documents and marking | Testing, certification and printing are priced separately | Mill certificate per drum, sequential metre marking, private label printing |
Reading the quotation
Two offers at the same price per metre are rarely the same offer. Before comparing them, check that the following are stated in both, because each one is a place where the difference hides. A careful buyer asks the supplier to confirm these in writing and then compares the offers again; the cheapest one frequently stops being the cheapest.
Length tolerance is the one that surprises people most. Cable is sold by the metre and the standard trade practice is a tolerance on the total quantity, commonly a few per cent, and a separate tolerance on individual drum or cut lengths. If the project is paying for 3,000 m and the tolerance allows −5 %, the site may receive 2,850 m, and it will discover this only when the last run is short. State the tolerance you will accept in the contract, not after delivery.
- Per metre, per 100 m or per drum, and the Incoterm behind it
- The copper price and its validity period
- Length tolerance on the total quantity and on individual drums
- Whether the drum is included, or charged as a returnable deposit
- Whether inspection, testing and third-party certification are included or extra
- Whether private label printing and sequential metre marking are included
- Delivery time: from order confirmation, or from deposit, and to which port
The mill certificate: what to check in it
A mill test certificate, sometimes called a certificate of conformity or an inspection document, is the record of what was measured on that production. It is not a catalogue datasheet, and a supplier who sends a datasheet instead has sent the wrong thing. The value of the document is entirely in whether it can be tied to the drums in the container, so the first check is the identification block, and the second is whether the measured values are there or only a tick in a box.
The conductor resistance result is the single most informative number, because it tells you the cross-section that was actually made. Insulation and sheath thickness matter next, and they should be given as minimum and average, not as a nominal value copied from a table. Finally, look for the physical properties of the compounds, because those reveal whether the material is what it claims to be; a certificate with no tensile and elongation results is a certificate that has not been through the laboratory.
| Item | What to look for | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Identification | Order number, type, size, standard, drum numbers, date | Without drum numbers it cannot be tied to the shipment |
| Conductor resistance | Measured value in Ω/km, corrected to 20 °C | It is the cross-section, measured, not nominal |
| Insulation thickness | Minimum and average in mm | The thin spot, and whether the wall is concentric |
| Sheath thickness | Minimum in mm | The mechanical and moisture barrier |
| Overall diameter | Measured in mm | Gland and tray fit, and a check on the construction |
| Voltage test | Test voltage and duration, and the result | Evidences the insulation withstand |
| Insulation resistance | Measured value or the calculated constant | Confirms the compound and the dryness |
| Tensile strength and elongation | Before and after ageing, for insulation and sheath | Reveals the compound quality |
| Hot set, for XLPE | Elongation under load and permanent set | Evidences that the insulation is properly cross-linked |
Inspection options and what each one catches
Inspection costs money and the question is which kind is worth it for your order. The answer depends on what you are afraid of, and the three realistic fears are the wrong product, the wrong quantity, and the wrong material. In-process and witnessed testing address the first and the third; loading supervision addresses the second; and none of them is a substitute for testing a retained sample in your own laboratory afterwards.
Third-party inspection is usually arranged through the international inspection companies, and it is priced by the man-day. On a container of cable it is a small fraction of the order value and it is the cheapest insurance available, particularly for a first order with a new supplier. The arrangement that works best is a pre-shipment inspection plus container loading supervision on the same visit, and a sealed retained sample sent with the documents.
| Option | What it catches | Limitation |
|---|---|---|
| In-process inspection during production | Conductor and insulation problems while there is still time to correct them | Requires the supplier to schedule it; add to the lead time |
| Witnessed testing at the factory | Confirms the tests were run and the results are real | Only covers what is on the day's schedule |
| Pre-shipment inspection | Dimensions, marking, drum condition, quantity, packing | Samples only what is presented; sampling plan matters |
| Third-party testing, SGS, BV, Intertek, TÜV, CQC | Independent results you can use in a dispute | Days of lead time and a fee per test |
| Container loading supervision | Wrong quantity, damaged drums, poor lashing and stacking | Does not sample the product itself |
| Retained sealed sample, tested at destination | The same batch, tested by your own laboratory | The results arrive after the goods are already there |
| Factory audit and ISO 9001 certificate check | Whether the quality system exists | A certificate is not evidence of a particular batch |
Incoterms 2020: who pays, and who carries the risk
Incoterms are the eleven published rules of the International Chamber of Commerce, and they allocate three things between buyer and seller: who arranges and pays for the carriage, who handles customs in each country, and at what point the risk of loss passes from one to the other. The last of those is the one that matters in a claim, and it is not the same as the point where the cost is allocated. On an FOB shipment the seller pays to get the goods on board, but the risk passes at the same moment, so the buyer's marine insurance has to start at the ship's rail.
For most cable imports the choice is between FOB, CIF and DAP. FOB gives the buyer control of the freight and the choice of carrier, which is usually best for an importer with a forwarder they trust. CIF is convenient for a first import, because the seller arranges the main carriage and the insurance, but the buyer still bears the risk from the point of loading. DAP delivers to a named place in the destination country with the buyer handling import clearance, and DDP goes further and makes the seller responsible for import duty and taxes, which many suppliers will not accept.
| Term | Who pays the main carriage and insurance | Where the risk passes | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| EXW | Buyer, from the factory | At the seller's premises when the goods are made available | Rarely workable for an overseas buyer; export clearance becomes the buyer's problem |
| FOB | Buyer, from on board | When the goods are on board the vessel | The common choice; the buyer's forwarder controls the shipment |
| CFR | Seller pays the carriage, buyer insures | When the goods are on board the vessel | The seller arranges the freight but not the insurance |
| CIF | Seller pays the carriage and the minimum insurance | When the goods are on board the vessel | Convenient; note that the insurance is minimum cover and the risk passes early |
| DAP | Seller, to the named place | At the named place, on the arriving vehicle, ready for unloading | The buyer handles import clearance and duty |
| DDP | Seller, including duty and taxes | At the named place | Often not offered by the supplier, because they become the importer of record |
Packing: drums, coils and the wood that customs cares about
Cable leaves the factory on a drum or in a coil, and the choice is made by size. Large power cable goes on drums, because a 240 mm² armoured cable cannot be coiled and uncoiled without damage. Small building wire and flexible cord usually goes in coils, shrink-wrapped or boxed, which packs far more efficiently per container. Drum lengths are limited by the drum's own capacity and by how much the drum and its contents will weigh when it is lifted.
The packing detail that causes customs problems is the wood. Any solid wood packaging entering international trade has to comply with ISPM 15, which means it is heat treated or fumigated and stamped with the IPPC mark. A container of drums on unstamped pallets can be held at the port or the packaging can be ordered destroyed, and neither outcome is the supplier's problem to fix from the other side of the world. Voltcore uses heat-treated wood that carries the mark, and can supply all-steel drums where the project wants them.
There is one more choice worth thinking about: the returnable steel drum. It saves the cost of the wooden drum and it survives the voyage better, but it has to be returned empty, which is a freight cost of its own, and it carries a deposit until it comes back. Unless there is a return flow to the same region, the deposit is usually lost and the wooden drum is cheaper overall.
- Drums: standard export drums, commonly 1.0 to 2.2 m flange diameter depending on the cable size
- Drum lengths: 500 m and 1,000 m are the common standards, and cut lengths are available to order
- Coils: for building wire and small flexible cable, typically 100 m coils in cartons or shrink-wrapped on pallets
- Wood: ISPM 15 heat treatment or fumigation, stamped with the IPPC mark
- Labelling: type, size, length, gross and net weight, order and drum number, and a rotation arrow
- Protection: an outer covering or lagging on drums that will sit in the sun at the port
Container loading: why cable ships heavy, not full
A container has two limits and cable hits one of them first. A 20 ft general purpose container has a maximum gross mass of 30,480 kg, which leaves a payload of about 28,000 kg depending on the tare, and an internal volume of about 33 m³. A 40 ft container has almost double the volume but a similar payload limit, because the maximum gross mass is the same. So cable, which is dense, fills a 20 ft container by weight and leaves half the volume unused.
Do the arithmetic for two sizes. A 4-core 95 mm² steel tape armoured cable weighs about 6.0 kg/m, so 28,000 kg carries about 4,600 m, which on the drum size that cable needs is roughly 15 drums and well inside the container volume. A 4-core 16 mm² cable of the same type weighs about 1.1 kg/m, so weight would allow 25,000 m, but 25 drums will not fit in 33 m³ and it is the volume that stops you, at around 16,000 m. The practical consequence is that a mixed order ships far more economically than a single size: combine the heavy sizes that hit the weight limit with the light sizes that fill the space, and the freight per metre drops for both.
| Cable | Approximate weight (kg/m) | Approximate metres per 20 ft container | What limits it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 × 16 YJV22 | 1.1 | about 16,000 m | Volume: roughly 16 drums at 1,000 m each |
| 4 × 95 YJV22 | 6.0 | about 4,500 m | Weight: roughly 15 drums at 300 m each |
| 4 × 240 YJV22 | 15.5 | about 1,700 m | Weight, and the drum's own capacity |
| 1.5 mm² building wire in coils | 0.03 | limited by carton volume, not weight | Volume: this one belongs in a 40 ft high cube |
| Single-core 630 mm² armoured | 7.5 | about 3,700 m | Weight, and the drum diameter for the bending radius |
Payment, documents and the terms you will be offered
The two terms in normal use are a telegraphic transfer with a deposit, and a letter of credit. A T/T with 30 % deposit and the balance before shipment, or against a copy of the bill of lading, is the usual arrangement and it is fast, because there is no bank documentation process in the middle. A letter of credit at sight is used for larger orders and where the buyer wants the bank to check the documents; it protects the buyer on paperwork and the seller on payment, and it is only workable if the credit is issued clean, with a description that matches what can actually be produced and no clauses that require documents the supplier cannot obtain.
The documents that follow the goods matter as much as the goods. The commercial invoice and packing list have to match the physical shipment, drum by drum; the bill of lading has to be issued to the correct consignee and notify party; the certificate of origin may be needed for a preferential duty rate; and the mill certificate has to be tied to the drum numbers. Ask for copies before the documents are couriered, because correcting a bill of lading after issue costs money and time. Ports of loading for this trade are Shanghai and Ningbo.
- T/T with 30 % deposit, balance before shipment or against a copy of the bill of lading
- L/C at sight for larger orders; keep the credit clean and free of unobtainable documents
- Western Union for sample freight and small sample payments
- Documents: invoice, packing list, bill of lading, certificate of origin, mill certificate, and the conformity markings the destination requires
- Minimum order quantity: 500 m per size, and 15 to 25 working days production
- Samples: free up to 5 m, with the buyer normally paying the courier
Frequently asked questions
What should I include in a cable RFQ to China?
Eight things: the type and standard, the voltage rating, the conductor material and class, the number and configuration of cores, the sheath and fire performance, the quantities and drum lengths, the application conditions, and the documents and marking required. Without them, two quotations can differ in price only because they differ in product.
What is the minimum order quantity for cable from China?
At Voltcore it is 500 m per size, with production in 15 to 25 working days from a confirmed order. Samples are free up to 5 m. Below the MOQ the line setup cost dominates, which is why a small mixed enquiry is usually priced higher per metre than a full container of the same sizes.
What is a mill test certificate for cable?
It is the record of what was measured on that production: conductor resistance corrected to 20 °C, minimum and average insulation and sheath thickness, overall diameter, the voltage and insulation resistance test results, and the tensile and elongation of the compounds. It is only useful if it carries the order number and the drum numbers, so it can be tied to the shipment.
Which Incoterm should I use for importing cable?
FOB is the usual choice if you have a forwarder you trust, because you control the freight and the carrier. CIF suits a first import, since the seller arranges carriage and minimum insurance, but the risk still passes when the goods are loaded. DAP delivers to the destination with you handling import clearance; DDP is often not offered.
Why does my cable container not fill up?
Because cable is dense. A 20 ft container has a payload around 28,000 kg but 33 m³ of volume, and 4 × 95 mm² armoured cable at about 6 kg/m hits the weight limit at roughly 4,500 m, well before the space is used. Mixing heavy sizes that hit the weight limit with light sizes that fill the volume reduces the freight cost per metre for the whole shipment.
Do wooden cable drums need treatment for export?
Yes. Solid wood packaging in international trade must comply with ISPM 15, meaning it is heat treated or fumigated and stamped with the IPPC mark. Without the mark the container can be held at the port or the packaging ordered destroyed. Ask the supplier to confirm the treatment and to show the stamp on the drum photographs before loading.
Need this worked out for a specific installation?
Send load current, route length, installation method, ambient temperature and the applicable standard — we will return a sized construction with the volt-drop and derating arithmetic shown.