Electrostatic Precipitator Landed Cost: The 12 Lines Between the Ex-Works Price and the Unit on Your Kitchen Floor, and Which Incoterm Covers Each

Electrostatic precipitator landed cost is everything paid between the factory price and the unit standing on the kitchen floor: freight, insurance, port charges, brokerage, duty, import tax, delivery, bank charges and time. The Incoterm on the quotation says which of those lines the seller has already included. The twelve lines below budget the rest.

The expensive error is not paying too much for the unit. It is approving a budget on the quotation alone, choosing the offer with the lowest number on it, and discovering at the port that the number was an ex-works price. The freight, the insurance, the terminal charges, the broker and the import tax then arrive as four more invoices, from four parties the factory never met, and the cheaper offer has become the dearer one. Every one of those invoices was foreseeable on the day the quotation was read.

This page helps you decide which Incoterm to ask for on an electrostatic precipitator or ecology unit quotation, how much to budget for the unit delivered to the kitchen rather than quoted at the factory, which lines to settle before the order and which to prepare before the ship arrives. It gives a twelve-line sheet with who quotes each line and which Incoterm already includes it, explains why the value that duty is charged on differs between the United States and the United Kingdom, and fills the sheet in for our own quotations. It does not give a tariff rate for your port, classify the goods or compare suppliers’ prices. For the tariff line itself, see our electrostatic precipitator HS code page; for which origin paper can lower the duty at your port, see electrostatic precipitator certificate of origin.

What landed cost is for an ESP order, and where each Incoterm stops

Landed cost is the sum of every line paid between the factory price and the unit standing where it will be installed, and the Incoterm on the quotation is the rule that says which of those lines the seller has already put into the price. The International Chamber of Commerce publishes the Incoterms rules as a set of eleven three-letter trade terms, and the one written beside the price fixes the point at which the seller’s costs and obligations stop. Read the three-letter term before the number; a quotation without one is a number without a meaning.

Three terms cover almost every electrostatic precipitator order that leaves a Chinese factory, and they stop at three different points. Under EXW the seller’s obligation ends at its own premises: the buyer arranges export clearance, inland transport to the port and everything after. Under FOB it ends when the goods are on board the vessel at the port of loading, which for us is Shanghai, so export clearance and the inland leg are in the price and the ocean freight is not. Under CIF the seller also pays the freight to the named destination port and buys insurance for the voyage; the ICC page notes that the Institute Cargo Clauses (C) remain the default level of cover under that rule, with higher cover open to agreement. Two further terms appear on some orders. Under DAP the seller delivers to a named place at the destination, and, as the ICC puts it, does not unload the goods; under DDP the seller also clears the goods for import and pays the duty. Our terms are arranged to suit the buyer, as our supplier profile states, and the three named in our published terms are the first three.

Decision rule. IF two quotations carry different Incoterms, THEN bring them to one term before the totals are compared, BECAUSE the gap between an EXW price and a CIF price is freight and insurance that you will pay to someone either way; our quotation comparison page puts that rebasing on line 11 of its sheet. IF the quotations are already on one term, THEN the twelve lines below are what remains to be budgeted after it, BECAUSE no Incoterm short of DDP carries the destination lines, and even DDP leaves the unloading.

The 12-Line ESP Landed Cost Sheet

An electrostatic precipitator landed cost is budgeted one line at a time, and each line is quoted by a different party. The sheet below has one row per line. The second column says what the line is. The third says who quotes it: the factory, the forwarder, the broker, the destination terminal, your bank or your own contractor. The fourth says whether the line is already inside an EXW, FOB or CIF price, and the fifth says what to send to get a figure instead of an estimate. Fill it once per shipment, not per unit, and apportion the shared lines across the units afterwards by weight or volume.

A sheet with all twelve lines carrying a quoted figure, or a written estimate with the party and the date, is a budget. A sheet with the factory price on line 1 and blanks below it is the number that becomes four more invoices at the port.

The 12-Line ESP Landed Cost Sheet (our own working sheet, not an accounting standard)

Decision rule. IF lines 3, 7 and 8 are blank when the budget is approved, THEN the budget is the factory price and not a landed cost, BECAUSE those three are the lines that most often decide whether the budget holds, and they cannot be read from the quotation. Send the packing list to the forwarder and the tariff line to the broker before the order, not after the vessel sails.

Freight and insurance: what the forwarder needs from the packing list

A freight quotation is built from gross weight and dimensions per package, and an electrostatic precipitator order gives both before it ships: the datasheet publishes the module weights and envelopes where it carries them (the HME hood sheet leaves weight blank), and the packing list states the gross weight of each package as crated, with the crate dimensions available on request. Our pre-shipment inspection page lists the packing list among the shipping documents and uses the gross weight on it for unloading; the same figures are what the forwarder prices from. Ask for the packing list figures with the proforma invoice, or send the forwarder the datasheet weights and envelopes with an allowance for crating, and say which port and whether a full container or a shared one.

The weights are not small, and a three-stage train is three modules, each crated. Our published 8,000 m³/h example on the ecology unit installation page is an LK80E1 electrostatic module at 116 kg, a UV80 module at 55 kg and a CB80 carbon module at 215 kg, 386 kg of modules before crating; the envelopes are on the LK-E series tables and the UV and carbon datasheets. For a shared container or for air freight, forwarders price on weight or volume, whichever gives the higher figure, so a light, bulky module may be charged on its envelope; a full container is priced per box. Either way the question is answered from the same two figures.

Insurance is the line that looks settled under CIF and is not. Under that rule the seller buys the cover, and the ICC page records that the Institute Cargo Clauses (C) remain the default level, with the parties free to agree a higher level. Clauses (C) are the default level of cover, not the widest, and under the rule the goods in transit are at your risk once they are on board; the seller has bought you a policy, not carried the risk. If a unit arrives damaged, the claim is yours to make under that policy, which is why our pre-shipment page has the receiving party photograph damage on arrival and send the photographs to whoever carries the transit risk. Decide the level of cover before the quotation is issued, and write it on row 8 of the enquiry with the term and the port.

Duty and import tax: the value they are charged on differs by country

The duty line is the tariff rate applied to a customs value, and the customs value includes international freight and insurance in the United Kingdom and excludes them in the United States. That difference is the reason the same FOB price produces two different customs values at two ports before any rate is applied, and it holds whichever term the quotation carries: at a United Kingdom port the freight and insurance are added whether the seller paid them under CIF or you paid them separately under FOB, and at a United States port they are left out either way.

In the United States the customs value is the transaction value. 19 CFR 152.103 defines it, in paragraph (b)(1), as the price actually paid or payable for the merchandise when sold for exportation to the United States, plus listed additions, and its worked Example 4 states that because the transaction value excludes C.I.F. charges, the ocean freight and insurance charge is excluded. The duty line in the United States is therefore the rate applied to a value that stops at the port of loading; a CIF price is split back into goods and carriage for the entry. The rate itself comes from the tariff line your broker classifies; our HS code page reads the headings, and our certificate of origin page records the additional subheadings a Chinese-origin entry can attract, which the broker confirms against the current tariff on the day.

In the United Kingdom the customs value is also the transaction value, but the costs of carriage are added to it. HMRC’s guidance on Method 1 states that the costs of transport, insurance, loading or handling connected with delivering the goods to the UK border must be included, and that delivery charges inside the United Kingdom may be deducted providing they are shown separately from the price paid or payable. The duty and the import VAT are both worked from that value, and the inclusion does not depend on who paid the carriage: freight and insurance on your forwarder’s invoice under FOB are added to the price just as a CIF price already contains them. For the commodity code our HS code page reads for an in-duct ESP, the classification itself being your broker’s, the UK Online Trade Tariff showed, on the date this page was written, a third-country duty of 0.00% on commodity 8421392590, with value added tax at the standard rate of 20%; both figures are read on 2026-10-12 and are not a promise about your entry.

Decision rule. IF the destination values goods with carriage included, THEN budget the duty and the import tax on P + F + I whichever term you buy on, BECAUSE the entry adds the freight and insurance whether they sit in a CIF price or on the forwarder’s invoice; ask for them as separate lines so the broker can declare them. IF the destination values goods without carriage, THEN budget them on P alone, BECAUSE the entry leaves the carriage out on either term. In both cases choose the term on who you want arranging the voyage and carrying the paperwork, not on the tax, and settle the origin paper question before the order, on our certificate of origin page, because it is the one line that can lower the rate rather than the value.

The lines no quotation carries: port, broker, compliance, delivery and time

Five lines are paid at the destination to parties the factory never meets, and they are budgeted from the destination side. No term short of DDP puts them in the price, and under DDP they are in the price with a margin on each, which is why we quote EXW, FOB and CIF and leave these lines to the parties that actually perform them.

Port and terminal (line 5), brokerage (line 6). The arrival port charges handling and documentation fees through the shipping line’s local agent or your forwarder, and the broker charges for the entry. Both are quoted in advance against the port and the container type; neither is a surprise unless nobody asked.

Compliance at import (line 9). Several markets require the importer, not the factory, to register or certify the equipment before it clears. Our country pages set out the ones we have written up: the Saudi Arabia page explains that the conformity registration there is made by the importer while we supply the technical documents; the Turkey page covers the TAREKS pre-permit; the Brazil page covers the INMETRO question for commercial hoods; the Mexico page covers the NOM annex question. The cost and the time on this line belong to the importer’s side, and they are the line most often left off a budget because the factory’s quotation cannot carry them.

Inland delivery and offloading (line 10). A truck from the port to the site, a crane or forklift rated for the gross weight on the packing list, and the route from the kerb to the plant room. The carbon module in a three-stage train is the heavy package, and a unit that arrives before the site can receive it goes to storage, which is line 12. Our drawing approval page asks for the module weights and support points on the general arrangement drawing; the same figures tell the haulier what the lift is.

Bank, exchange and time (lines 11 and 12). Transfer and letter-of-credit charges are quoted by your bank against the payment terms; on our terms a deposit is paid at order and the balance before shipment, with T/T and L/C both accepted, so there are two transfers and an exchange rate at each. Line 12 is the line nobody quotes: demurrage and storage if the goods wait at the port for a document, re-delivery if the site is not ready, and the freight invoice that arrives after the shipment and has to be reconciled against the estimate. Budget it as a contingency with a date beside it, and close it when the last invoice is in.

Our own offer against the sheet

Our quotation is issued EXW, FOB or CIF with shipments leaving from Shanghai Port, and the freight line is added when the port is known; the sheet below says which of the twelve lines it carries and which are paid at your end to parties we do not contract with. The terms behind each line are the ones published on our supplier profile.

Two lines on the sheet are deliberately not ours to fill. Duty and import tax are not on our quotation, because the rate, the basis and the recoverability belong to your tariff and your tax authority on the day of entry, and a figure from a seller on the far side of the world would be a guess dressed as a line. And the destination lines stay with the parties that perform them on the three terms we publish; a term that carries them, such as DAP or DDP, is arranged case by case under our terms-to-suit-the-buyer practice, and it puts those lines into the price with a margin on each.

Scope and limits

The sheet budgets a shipment. Three things sit outside it.

• The price itself, and the cost to install and run. Why two quotations differ on line 1 is set out on our electrostatic precipitator price page; how to put three offers on one airflow, one scope and one term before reading the price is on the quotation comparison page. What the unit costs to install and to run once it is on the floor, the ductwork and labor on the contractor’s side and the cell washing and consumables on the operator’s, is a budget of its own, set out on our cleaning and ecology unit filters pages. This page starts after the price and stops at the kitchen door.
• Classification and origin. The tariff line and the origin paper each have their own page; the sheet takes their outputs as inputs on line 7.
• Rates. The two United Kingdom figures above are quoted on the date read and nothing else is; every other rate, fee and charge is a figure your forwarder, broker, bank and contractor supply for your port on your date.

What changes the sheet: a change of term or port (lines 2 to 5 are re-quoted); a change of the tariff line or the origin paper (line 7); a change of the on-site date (line 12); and a second shipment, which is a second sheet.

Buyer record and key takeaways

Before the budget is approved, your file should hold:

• The quotation with its three-letter term and named port, and the proforma invoice it becomes.
• The forwarder’s freight and insurance lines, quoted from the packing list figures, with the level of cover stated.
• The broker’s duty and import tax lines, with the customs value basis and the tariff line written beside them, and the origin paper decision from the certificate of origin page.
• The destination lines: terminal, brokerage, compliance, inland delivery and offloading, each with the party and the date of the quote.
• The contingency on line 12 with a date beside it, and the reconciled sheet when the last invoice is in.

Key takeaways

• Read the term before the number: EXW, FOB and CIF stop at three different points, and the lines after the stopping point are yours.
• Three lines decide the budget: freight, duty and import tax; none can be guessed from the quotation, and all three can be quoted before the order.
• Duty is a rate on a value: the value includes carriage at a United Kingdom port and excludes it at a United States port, whichever term you buy on; the country moves the value, the term only moves who invoices the carriage.
• The destination lines are nobody’s quotation: terminal, broker, compliance, delivery and time are budgeted from your side, from the packing list and the on-site date.
• Apportion by shipment: fill the sheet once per shipment and spread the shared lines across the units afterwards.

Frequently asked questions

What is included in the landed cost of an electrostatic precipitator imported from China?

The factory price on its stated term, export clearance and inland transport to the port of loading, international freight, transit insurance, destination port and terminal charges, customs brokerage, import duty, import VAT or GST, any conformity or compliance fees at import, inland delivery and offloading, bank and exchange costs, and the cost of time: demurrage, storage and reconciliation. The Incoterm on the quotation says which of those the seller has already included; EXW includes the first, FOB the first two, CIF the first four.

Does a CIF price increase the import duty?

Not by itself. In the United Kingdom the customs value includes the costs of transport and insurance to the UK border whether the seller paid them under CIF or you paid them separately under FOB, so freight and insurance enter the value that duty and import VAT are worked from on either term. In the United States the transaction value excludes the international freight and insurance on either term. The term changes who arranges and invoices the carriage; the country decides whether the carriage is taxed. Ask your broker which basis your port applies, and ask for freight and insurance as separate lines so they can be declared.

Which Incoterm should I ask for on an ESP quotation?

The one that matches who you want to arrange the voyage and carry the paperwork. FOB Shanghai lets your forwarder price and control the freight and insurance; CIF has the seller arrange them to your port at the default level of cover; EXW is for buyers with their own collection arrangements in China. Bring every quotation to one term before comparing totals, and decide the level of transit insurance before the quotation is issued, since the Institute Cargo Clauses (C) are the default under CIF and the risk in transit remains yours.

What do you need from me to add the freight line?

The destination port and whether you want a full or shared container; the gross weights come from our packing list and the crate dimensions on request. With the port known we add a separate freight line under CIF, or supply the packing list figures to your forwarder under FOB. The level of insurance cover, if higher than the default, is stated on row 8 of the enquiry with the term and the port.

Why are duty and import tax not on your quotation?

Because the rate, the customs value basis and whether the tax is recoverable belong to your tariff and your tax authority on the day of entry, and a figure from the seller would be a guess. We quote EXW, FOB or CIF with shipments from Shanghai Port, add the freight line when the port is known, supply the documents your broker needs, and leave the destination lines to the parties that perform them; a term that carries those lines is arranged case by case under our terms-to-suit-the-buyer practice.

Budgeting a unit delivered, not quoted?

Send us the destination port, the term you prefer and, if your broker has already classified the goods, the tariff line. We return a proforma invoice on that term, with the datasheet for the quoted models and the certificate copies that name them, within 24 hours on business days; the freight line follows once the forwarder has quoted the port, the packing list follows once the units are packed, and the broker’s description block is on our HS code page for you to fill from those documents. If you are comparing two offers on different terms, send the port and the term you want to compare on, and we quote on that term.

Send the port and the term →

If the enquiry has not gone out yet, row 8 of the ten-input enquiry sheet is where the port, the term and the importer of record are fixed; a quotation written against it arrives with line 1 and, where the port is known, line 3 already on the sheet.

Why we write this. The quotation is the only line of the landed cost that a buyer sees before the order, and it is read as if it were the whole. The questions behind this page are whether a CIF price makes the duty higher, and why the delivered unit cost more than the quotation. It answers both by listing the twelve lines and saying who quotes each. It does not price or configure equipment; pricing and quotation live on the product pages.

References & further reading

1. Delivery terms: International Chamber of Commerce, Incoterms® 2020 (eleven three-letter trade terms; Institute Cargo Clauses (C) as the default cover under CIF; DAP without unloading). iccwbo.org
2. United States customs value: 19 CFR 152.103, Transaction value (paragraph (b)(1) and worked Example 4 on the exclusion of C.I.F. charges). law.cornell.edu
3. United Kingdom customs value: HM Revenue & Customs, Valuing imported goods using Method 1 (transaction value): transport, insurance, loading and handling to the UK border included; UK delivery charges deductible if shown separately. gov.uk
4. United Kingdom tariff and VAT, read 2026-10-12: UK Online Trade Tariff, commodity 8421392590 (third-country duty 0.00%). trade-tariff.service.gov.uk · VAT rates (standard rate 20%). gov.uk
5. Our own pages the sheet draws on: electrostatic precipitator HS code (the tariff line and the broker description block), electrostatic precipitator certificate of origin (which origin paper lowers the rate at which port) and electrostatic precipitator pre-shipment inspection (the shipping document set and the packing list).

Related reading

• Electrostatic precipitator HS code: where a kitchen ESP, ESP hood and ecology unit sit in the Harmonized System, which fixes line 7.
• Electrostatic precipitator certificate of origin: the thirteen destinations and which form, if any, lowers the duty on line 7.
• Electrostatic precipitator quotation comparison: the sixteen lines that put three offers on one term before this sheet is filled.
• Electrostatic precipitator commissioning: the twelve-point record signed at the other end of the journey, once the unit is installed.