Floor tiles and sanitary ware rarely fail on freight rate. They fail on two quieter numbers: the weight of a pallet nobody checked, and the breakage rate on the last fifty kilometres.

Why Tiles Are Priced by Weight, Not by Box

Ceramic tile is one of the densest goods in regular container traffic. A pallet that looks modest on the loading dock can weigh more than a small car, and sea freight prices it by cubic metre or by tonne, whichever produces the higher number. For tile, the tonne almost always wins.

That single fact changes the whole calculation. A buyer comparing quotes per carton is comparing the wrong unit. The number that matters is cost per square metre delivered, and it moves with pallet weight, breakage allowance and how much empty air the packing leaves between boxes.

We ask for three figures before quoting: square metres per pallet, gross weight, and pallet footprint. Without them a quote is a guess dressed as a price.

What Travels Well and What Needs Crating

Ceramic and porcelain tile

Tile ships best on a sturdy pallet, shrink wrapped, with a rigid board under the bottom layer. Boxes stacked directly on the container floor crush at the corners once the stack reaches head height. We prefer pallets under 1.1 metres tall, because the second tier is where most chipping starts.

Sanitary ware and fittings

Toilets, basins and pedestals are hollow, awkward and fragile at exactly the points that carry the load. They need individual cartons with foam at the rim, then a crate or a pallet with a top board. Loose loading is cheaper on paper and more expensive on arrival.

What we advise against

Mixed pallets of tile and fittings look efficient but price badly. The tile sets the weight, the fittings set the volume, and the fragile items end up under the heavy ones when a warehouse team is in a hurry. Keep the two on separate pallets and label both.

Packing choices that decide your breakage rate

Pallet specification. Standard pallets are not rated for one tonne of tile. Ask your factory for the load rating and match it to the stack height, not to the square metres.

Corner and edge protection. Edge boards cost very little and prevent the corner chips that turn a full pallet into a claim. For polished porcelain, we add a plastic corner set on all four verticals.

Mixed pallets. If a shipment must combine sizes, keep heavy formats at the bottom, use a separator board between layers, and mark the pallet number on two sides so the receiving team can check it against the packing list.

Documents and Duty

Tile and sanitary ware do not share a single tariff line. Ceramic tiles, vitreous china sanitary ware and metal bathroom fittings are classified separately, and each carries its own rate. An invoice that describes everything as bathroom materials invites a reclassification and a delay at the port.

We work from a commercial invoice that names each product, its material, its quantity and its unit value, plus a packing list that matches pallet numbers. Where a single shipment falls near the threshold described in our Philippines BOC de minimis rules 2026 guide, we check it before booking rather than after arrival.

How the Shipment Moves

1. Collection. We pick up from the factory in Foshan, Guangzhou or Shenzhen and check pallet weight and wrap at the warehouse.
2. Export. Booking, container loading or LCL handover, and the export declaration.
3. Clearance. Duty and VAT assessed on the declared value, then released to our broker.
4. Delivery. Trucked to the project site or dealer warehouse, with a tail-lift where the address has no loading bay.

The full sequence, including who holds which document at each step, is on our service flowchart.

Why Shippers Choose Sunny Worldwide Logistics

We are a freight forwarder, not a tile trader. That means we can tell you when a factory's pallet specification will cost you more in breakage than it saves in packaging, and we can refuse a booking that we know will be damaged. For regular tile importers we hold the same pallet data from shipment to shipment, so the second container is priced on facts rather than on a fresh guess.

Most of our tile and fittings traffic lands in Manila and moves onward to Cavite, Laguna and Bulacan. Details are on the China to Manila route page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I ship a full container of tiles from Foshan?

Yes. A 20ft container is usually the better choice for dense tile, because it reaches the weight limit long before it runs out of space. We confirm the payload against the haulier's road limit before booking.

Who pays for breakage during sea transit?

Unless the cargo is insured, the importer carries the loss. Our job is to reduce the probability with packing standards and loading checks, and to document the condition at handover so a claim is possible if something does go wrong.

Is DDP available for provincial delivery?

Yes, including Cebu and Davao, though the routing and the transit time differ from Manila. We quote provincial addresses separately rather than assuming the Manila rate applies.

Send your pallet data and destination address through our contact page and we will return a landed figure rather than a port-to-port teaser.