Your supplier in Guangzhou quotes $2.50 per unit FOB. Sounds great. Then 5,000 units land at your Los Angeles warehouse and the real cost is $3.13 per piece, a 25% jump most first-time importers never see coming. Underestimate your import costs from China and a 40% margin shrinks to 18%. Miss one customs filing deadline? That’s a $5,000 penalty. I’ve laid out every fee layer below with real 2025 numbers, plus a worked calculation you can copy.

The Real Import Costs From China Start With Landed Cost

Serious buyers don’t compare FOB quotes. They compare landed cost, the total spend to get one unit onto the shelf. Here’s the formula: Landed Cost = (Product Price + Freight + Duty + Customs Fees + Insurance + Inland Haulage + Compliance) ÷ Units Shipped. Every input moves on its own. A 40ft container from Shanghai to the US West Coast went from over $20,000 at the 2021 peak down to $2,400–