Home > Ship & Postage

How Much It Costs To Ship Furniture Overseas

Whether you plan on shipping important pieces of furniture across the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific or across the Gulf and onto the other global regions, a couple of major factors will play crucial in how much it will cost to ship via a container.

Rates for furniture and other such items are assessed fees that are based on the cubic footage (and possibly weight) that the item(s) consume inside the containers. Quite approximately, going thru a Freight Forwarder/Customers Broker, this may be $5.00 per cubic foot on up to $11 or even $12 a cubic foot and with a lot of play. Charges like customs duty, furniture packing and sealing and any added handling and insurance may or may not be part of the initial quote but these are definitely costs in getting it there, so they should be addressed one way or another.


Factors such as origins and destinations, transit to the shipping port, projected time frames and the particular freight carrier chosen (and freight forwarder) will all have much to do with the total amount spent, as will current market conditions. These calculated costs can mean that a trans-oceanic shipping of a 30 cubic foot parcel, that might consist of a furnishing such as an armoire or another similarly-spaced item, come in at $240 plus, not including the 2.5% tariff on furniture and any extra fees such as for inland handling that will also have to do with your proximity to the ports and other factors.

In the event the furniture is purchased abroad, some dealers might be able to assist in the shipping of the load back to domestic ports.

Generally, while some consumers do try and send by way of their own container, many consumers are discouraged by the idea of potentially, substantially longer wait times that might be better expedited by an international shipping company. All the while, filling the space of the containers are key.