Importing from China to Europe in 2026: What It Really Costs

A EUR 10,000 China Order: The Full Landed-Cost Teardown

Landed cost is the real price you pay to get goods from a Chinese factory to your door in Europe: product, freight, insurance, duty, VAT, broker fees, port charges, and inland trucking. In 2026, with the EU's EUR 150 VAT exemption gone, the gap between the supplier's invoice and your final cost is wider than most first-time importers expect. On a typical consumer-goods order, budget for 30-45% on top of the FOB price by the time the truck backs up to your warehouse.

I've been importing from China since 2013, and I still run every order through a full landed-cost teardown before I commit to it. Here's a real one from last quarter: a client in Utrecht ordered 1,200 pieces of ceramic tableware from a supplier in Yiwu. FOB price, EUR 5.50 per unit, so EUR 6,600 for the goods. We shipped LCL -- about 4 cubic meters -- from Shanghai to Rotterdam, then trucked it to his warehouse. By the time the dust settled, that order cost him EUR 9,464, not EUR 6,600. That's 43% more than the FOB price. The table below is the exact breakdown we ran.

The Post-De-Minimis EU: Every Parcel Now Pays VAT

For years, the EU let low-value consignments through without VAT: up to EUR 22 until 2021, then up to EUR 150. That ended on 1 July 2025. As part of the EU Customs Reform, the EUR 150 VAT exemption for low-value consignments was abolished, so every commercial import -- from a EUR 5 phone case to a full container -- is now subject to import VAT at the destination country's rate. The EUR 150 rule you read about in older blog posts no longer exists.

This is the biggest change in EU import rules in a decade, and a surprising number of small importers still don't know about it. I keep seeing people quote the old EUR 150 rule with total confidence. Here's what actually happens now with a small parcel: the courier delivers, then sends you an invoice for import VAT (21% in the Netherlands) plus a clearance fee of EUR 12-25. A EUR 30 sample from Shenzhen can land with EUR 21.30 in extra charges -- 71% on top. It's not a scandal, it's just the new normal, and you should build it into every sample and test order you place.

Import Duty and VAT: Reading the Real Numbers

Import duty is charged on the CIF value -- cost of the goods plus insurance plus freight. VAT is then charged on top of CIF plus duty. So the math for any EU import is: duty = CIF x duty rate, VAT = (CIF + duty) x VAT rate. Duty rates come from the EU's TARIC database and depend on the HS code; VAT rates are set by each member state and mostly fall between 19% and 23%.

Most importers obsess over the duty rate and ignore the VAT line. That's backwards. On the EUR 9,464 teardown above, VAT was EUR 1,573 -- more than three times the EUR 490 duty. And here's the nuance nobody tells you: if you're a VAT-registered business, you can usually reclaim the import VAT on your next VAT return, so it's mostly a cash-flow cost, not a real one. Duty is a real cost you never get back. Check your HS code on TARIC before you order -- a 12% vs 7% classification can be the difference between profit and loss on a thin margin.

Sea, Air, or Express: A Decision Framework, Not a Price List

Stop asking what's the cheapest way to ship from China and start asking what this order actually needs. The right method depends on three things: value per kilogram, how fast you need it, and volume. High value per kg and urgent? Express. Heavy, bulky, and patient? Sea freight, every time.

Here's the thing: air freight is a trap for low-value goods. At EUR 5/kg on a product that costs EUR 2 to make, you've just added 250% to your unit cost. I've watched clients do the urgent-restock-by-air move and seen their margin disappear in one shipment. My rule of thumb: if the goods cost more than EUR 15/kg, air or express is fine. Under that, plan your inventory so sea freight works. Express, by the way, is the one thing I won't negotiate on for samples -- DHL has been the most reliable for me across eight years of China shipments, and a EUR 40 sample that takes 4 days beats a EUR 15 one that takes three weeks.

IOSS and E-Commerce: The Only Clean Way to Sell Small Parcels

If you sell online to EU consumers, the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) is the mechanism that keeps your customers from getting hit with VAT and courier fees at the door. It works like this: you -- or the marketplace you sell through -- register for IOSS in one EU country, charge the customer's local VAT at checkout, and pay it all in a single monthly return. The parcel then clears customs with your IOSS number attached, and the customer receives it with nothing extra to pay. IOSS has been available since 1 July 2021 for B2C parcels up to EUR 150.

For a small online store, IOSS is the difference between a 12% checkout drop-off and happy customers. When you don't use it, the courier collects VAT plus a EUR 12-25 clearance fee from the buyer at delivery -- and a lot of buyers just refuse the parcel. Some sellers still try to help by undervaluing parcels below the threshold. Don't. It's customs fraud, it's aggressively targeted now, and one bad shipment can cost you your payment processing. The EU has also agreed in principle to make IOSS mandatory for low-value B2C imports under its VAT-in-the-Digital-Age reform. The direction is clear, so build your checkout around IOSS now.

Seven Costs Importers Forget Until the Invoice Arrives

After years of reviewing client shipments, these are the costs that show up uninvited. They won't all hit every order, but one or two of them always do.

I had a shipment sit in Rotterdam for 11 days once because the forwarder's documents had a typo in the consignee's VAT number. That little typo cost EUR 1,870 in demurrage before customs even looked at the container. The fix is boring but free: check the EORI number, the VAT number, and the HS code on every document before the ship leaves port -- not after it arrives.

• Courier clearance fee: EUR 12-25 per parcel, charged by DHL/UPS/FedEx even when duty and VAT are covered.
• Terminal handling (THC) and port charges in Rotterdam: EUR 150-200 per shipment, billed by the forwarder.
• Demurrage and detention: EUR 100-250 per day after your 3-5 free days at the terminal.
• Customs broker fee: EUR 75-150 per entry if you don't self-file.
• Currency swings: RMB/EUR can move 2-4% between quote and payment -- I add a 2% buffer.
• Compliance extras: CE marking, food-contact tests, or REACH registration can add EUR 300-2,000 on regulated goods.
• Insurance: 0.3-0.5% of CIF value. Skip it once on a EUR 10,000 order and the lesson costs you ten grand.

Run Your Own Numbers: The Calculator on This Site

The teardown in this article is exactly what the landed cost calculator on this site produces. Put in the same numbers -- 1,200 units, EUR 5.50 per unit, LCL sea freight from China to the Netherlands, HS 6912, EUR 95/CBM -- and it walks through duty, VAT, broker fee, THC, and inland trucking, and lands on the same EUR 9,464.

I built this tool because I got tired of watching people price their products on FOB plus a guess. Run your real supplier quote through it before you place the order. The ten minutes it takes have saved my clients five figures more than once. It works in all 8 languages on this site, so your warehouse manager in Rotterdam and your supplier's rep in Yiwu can look at the same numbers.

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