芳草苑

我是在调查我的case时，才知道中国到英国主要港口之间的拼箱海运费是免费的。也就是说，如果你是出口商，算出 FOB Shanghai 是什么价格，就可以报出 CFR Felixstowe 什么价格。

我也算是消息不灵通人士了：这个在货运行业中存在多年的规则，我竟然刚刚知晓。其实这个免费规则还可以扩展一下，世界上还有很多目的港可以做到免费海运，甚至货代还倒贴给你，就是说你有可能报出比FOB还低的CFR价格。

因为我们公司以前一直指定货代，我也不是直接负责这方面的事务，难怪我不了解这条潜规则。不过，现在我知道了，我得在公司推行一下。

又读到一篇报道，也很有意思：

…天津港已同全球180多个国家和地区的100多个港口建立了贸易往来…

假设前者国家和地区数为a，后者港口数为b，从字面上一般理解为a > b （如果你要钻牛角尖，说180多可以是190，100多可以是199，那我就无话可说了），也就是说180多个国家和地区当中，很多是内陆国家和内陆地区，没有自己的港口。所以，报道用词改为

…天津港已同全球180多个国家和地区，100多个港口建立了贸易往来…

比较妥当。

To me, sourcing Chinese products is a piece of cake.

• I am UK based so I can be close contact with the buyers.
• I have no language barrier because I am from China.
• I have years of experience of talking to manufacturers.
• I know or I can easily find out the production base area of a certain product, so I avoid fruitless approaches from the very beginning.

However, some people may think sourcing products in China is a hi-tech job, especially for those English speakers. One of my partners, before he became my partner, used a weird approach to source Chinese products. He can only speak English, which makes him reluctant to talk/write to Chinese suppliers directly. He is neglecting the fact that China is open to the world now and many Chinese factories and/or import and export companies have staff with good English literature. He is just afraid of the embarrassment of misunderstandings in communication. He employed someone in India as Virtual Assistant to source products in China.

It was a weird approach because the Indian Virtual Assistant was virtually a liaison. It would raise more chances of misunderstandings in communication even the Indian Virtual Assistant is English-Chinese bilingual. What’s more, the Indian Virtual Assistant could not go to China in case the situation requires. I did not see any benefits of employing a Virtual Assistant in Indian.

Well, now I am his partner, and I source products in China, liaison with Chinese factories, and inspect the factories as partnership. I can find many good Chinese suppliers that never appear on Google. (If I was a Chinese suppliers, the first thing I would do was calling for Google awareness. But that is another issue.)

If you are outsourcing sourcing manpower, I would also like to be your Chinese Products Sourcing Manager. Leave a reply for details.