Brewery Tank Shipping

Part 1:

Transport Facilities for brewery tanks

By sea/By train

Ship is the most popular way in international trading. The microbrewery tanks are easily placed into containers no matter 20 feet or 40 feet and then shipped the whole world. There are so many ships in China which ply between China and other sea ports in the world like USA ports, Canada ports, Australia ports, Europe ports, Latine America ports, Africa and Asia ports etc. Those ships can be one time one week at least, some is even two or three lines a week.

Some countries which is far away from sea like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan etc. Railway or joint sea-rail transportation is the best way.

Part 2:
Containers for Beer Tanks

Standard containers/Open frame/On-site building

Usually small beer tanks like 500L fermenter, 1000L fermenter could be placed into container standing because the container height is limited by 2.65m max (a 40’ HQ). The tanks which are heigher than the container should be lied down. A support frame under the tank is necessary to make sure it can be fixed in the container and protect the tanks from damage. For example, a 2000L beer fermenter is 1.56m in diameter and 3.2m in height. Once 40’ container can hold 3 sets tanks after lied down.

Container perhaps doesn’t work well if the brewery tank is too big. A 5000L brewhouse tank like lauter tun can be 2.8m wider and 4.5m heigher. It must be placed into an open frame for delivery. The 40’ or 45’ container may be able to hold a 200HL fermetation tank, but it is necessary to assemble the tank on site for a bigger one like 300HL.

Part 3:
Shipping Company, Forwarder or Logistics Agency for your brewery system

Several big shipping company share the business of sea transportation. In China, we usually can only get in touch with their agency instead of themselves unless you have hundreds containers every month. We are in advantage of competitive price from several companies. Most of the shipping company will give a relatively lower sea freight comparing from the destination port. That is why people like us to arrange the shipping for lower cost and saving time. However, the disadvantage is that you may need clearing custom separately. Of course, if you are familar with some logistics companies, it is also a good choice for one stop service.

Part 4:
Sea Freight Fluctence During Transportation of Brewery Tanks

Sea freight will go up and down as market change, obviously the price differs a lot in different time. Some may even have more than thousand dollars difference within one month.So how to effectively avoid the impact of sea freight change in advance when importing beer equipment is a very important concern to every participant.

Planning ahead is necessary, which request organize everything well in advance. Beer equipment and beer brewing is not simple as imaging. It needs a lot of investment, time, etc including beer equipment designing, manufacturing, testing, brewery building construction, facilities settingup ect. One year or at least 8 months is not so long before you tap your beer into commercial in conservative estimate.

There are several factors which the sea freight.

1. Seasons

Seasons is the top important factor that need to take into consideration.
Normally the price will rise since April. The highest price will take place on September to November as some additional fees will be added in hot season. Then it will reduce when cold winter comes.
Now we are clear that we need to think over in which month we want to ship our equipment? The Manufacturing time for turnkey beer system will last for about three months. Some location near from China, like Korea, Taiwan_China, Japan, Thailand ect, only need 3 or 7 days. But for Europe,North America, South America, Russia ect, the time need 20-40days.
So yes, now is the appropriate order time for beer equipment, from September to November, a hot season for beer equipment, come on!

2. Shipping time on sea

Shipping time is much to do with destination location, voyage, ship company and transporting via other port or not.
First, we should check which port is near your location and which port have a convenient and fast transportation to the destination.
Then we need to choose a reliable ship company to the destination port. DEGONG Beer Equipment Company can help in that aspect, we have several professional forwarders, they can give us professional advice. So you can be assured, we can let you know the best shipping plan if you tell us the suitable port.

3. Direct or transshipment

Choosing a direct ship or transshipment differs on sea freight. If you are not in a hurry to receive equipment, transshipment can help you save certain cost, meanwhile you need pay more patience to wait.

4. Other factors
 

Surely, there are some other factors , like exchange rate, petroleum prices ect. They also have impact on sea freight, but not so much.