How a Used Injection Molding Machine Is Shipped from China: Packing, Loading and Delivery

Buying the machine is only half the job. Between a workshop in China and a factory floor in Vietnam, Malaysia or Mexico, your machine spends weeks in a steel box — in port heat, sea air and container sweat — lifted, lashed and unloaded by people who have never seen it before. Most shipping damage to used machines is not bad luck: it is bad packing, bad loading, or a buyer who discovers the forklift is too small and the power supply wrong. This guide walks the journey in order — what the seller should do, what you should receive as proof, and what you must prepare.

Step 1: After the Deposit — Trial and Final Checks

Shipping preparation starts before any packing material comes out. Once a deposit is paid, the machine gets its production trial before shipment: a mold is mounted, it runs real parts, and you approve the parts and the video before the balance is paid. This is the last cheap moment to catch a problem — a fault found in the seller’s workshop costs a repair; the same fault found after unloading costs a technician’s flight.

After the trial, the seller runs final checks against the agreed condition: refurbishment items completed, fluids dealt with as agreed, loose accessories collected. At MoldMach this sequence is fixed — trial, your approval, balance, then packing.

Step 2: Sea-Worthy Packing — Protecting the Machine

A used machine’s enemies in transit are moisture and movement. Good export packing deals with both:

Rust protection. Machined and polished surfaces — tie bars, platen faces, mold-mounting surfaces, the screw area — are cleaned and coated with rust-preventative oil or wax.

Moisture control. The machine is wrapped in plastic film or vacuum-sealed in foil where appropriate, with desiccant packs inside the wrap and the electrical cabinet. Weeks at sea mean day-night temperature swings, and condensation forms on cold steel — unprotected cabinets and bright surfaces are where it lands. Desiccant is cheap; a corroded controller board is not.

Skid or crate. The machine is bolted to a steel or heavy timber skid so it can be lifted and lashed as one unit, and its feet never take a forklift fork directly. Larger or more vulnerable machines get a full wooden crate. Either way, the machine must not be able to shift on its base.

Loose parts and documents. Hand controllers, tools, spare parts, manuals and electrical and hydraulic diagrams are boxed separately, labelled, and photographed before the box is sealed — small items are the first thing lost in transit, and a missing manual costs days at installation.

Used molds travel under the same discipline — dried, rust-protected, strapped — covered in our used molds guide.

Step 3: Choosing the Container

The container follows the machine’s measured dimensions and weight, not its catalogue tonnage:

• 20GP — the short standard container; suits a single smaller machine, or a machine plus molds.
• 40GP — the standard long container; the workhorse for medium machines.
• 40HQ — the same length, roughly a foot taller; the extra door height matters because many machines are limited by loading height, not floor space.
• Flat rack — an open platform with no walls or roof, for machines too tall or wide for any closed container; the machine travels crated and tarped on the rack.

As a rough orientation only: small machines in the 90–180T class often travel two or three to a 40HQ; a mid-range machine in the 250–450T class commonly takes a 40GP or 40HQ alone or shared with molds and spares; large machines from roughly 650T upward are typically one per container, and the biggest go on a flat rack. The deciding numbers are always the individual machine’s length, width, height and weight — your seller should confirm the container against the measured machine, and say if anything (a hopper, a guard) is removed for loading and packed separately.

Step 4: Loading Day — Lashing and Supervision

A machine that moves inside a container damages itself and everything beside it. Loading is a supervised job, not a favour from the truck driver:

Positioning. The machine goes in level, weight distributed, clear of the container walls where possible. Machines sharing a container are separated with timber so steel never touches steel.

Lashing. The skid is blocked with timber and the machine secured with steel straps or chains to the container’s lashing points — not just parked and hoped for. Blocking stops the forward surge; lashing stops the rest.

Supervision. Someone responsible watches the lift, the positioning and the lashing, and signs off before the doors close. At MoldMach, loading supervision is a listed part of the service, not an extra: the container is not sealed until the loading is checked.

Step 5: What You Receive — and the Documents

You should never take the loading on trust. Expect a photo and video set: the machine packed and wrapped, loose-parts boxes labelled, the machine going into the container, the lashing in place, and the container and seal numbers photographed on the closed doors. That set is your evidence if anything arrives damaged — and the reason damage claims succeed or fail.

The shipping documents follow:

• Commercial invoice — what was sold, its value and the parties; the basis for customs at your end.
• Packing list — each item, its dimensions and weight, matching what is physically in the container.
• Bill of lading — the carrier’s document for the shipment itself; your agent uses it to release the container at destination, so its details (consignee, notify party, container and seal numbers) must match the physical load exactly.

Check the drafts when the seller sends them — a wrong consignee name or container number is a delay you can prevent with one reply.

Step 6: FOB, CIF or EXW — Who Arranges What

The three terms you will meet, in plain language:

• EXW (Ex Works) — you collect the machine at the seller’s door and arrange everything from that point: trucking, export customs, ocean freight, insurance, destination costs. Cheapest headline price, most work and risk for you.
• FOB (Free On Board) — the seller delivers the machine through Chinese export customs and loaded onto the ship at the named port. From the ship onward — freight, insurance, destination charges — is yours. The most common basis for used machinery, because buyers often have their own forwarder.
• CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight) — the seller arranges and pays ocean freight and basic insurance to your named destination port. You still handle destination port charges, import customs, duties and the truck to your factory.

None of them includes importing the machine into your country — duties, taxes and local clearance are the buyer’s side under all three. Decide which you want before the price is finalised: the same machine carries three different prices under the three terms, and an EXW quote and a CIF quote are different products.

Step 7: What to Prepare at Your End

While the container is on the water, get your side ready:

Unloading capacity. Check the machine’s weight and dimensions against your forklift or crane before the container arrives — a mid-size machine defeats a small warehouse forklift, and hiring a crane at port-side urgency rates is the expensive way to learn it. Confirm your doorway and floor path take the machine’s footprint and height.

Power supply. Most Chinese-market machines are wired 380V/50Hz. Check your factory supply against the nameplate figure confirmed before shipment; if your voltage or frequency differs, arrange the transformer or conversion before the machine lands, not while the installation technician waits.

People and paperwork. Have your customs agent lined up with the invoice and packing list drafts, and a technician booked for installation. A container at port accrues charges by the day; the cheapest week of the whole purchase is the one where everything at destination was ready before the ship docked.

What Sets the Timeline

Honest sellers talk about timeline factors, not guaranteed day counts. The clock is driven by: the production trial and any work it triggers; packing and container booking around vessel schedules; the sailing itself; and clearance at your end. Port congestion, a missed sailing or a customs inspection can each move the date — none is in the seller’s control. Demand not a promised date but evidence at each stage: trial video, packing photos, loading photos, documents, and the container and seal numbers the day the doors close.

Ready to Talk About a Machine?

Tell us which machine you are considering — or the product you want to make — and where it has to go. We will confirm how it would be trialled, packed and loaded, and which delivery term fits you. Start on our contact page, browse the current stock, or message us on WhatsApp at +86 156 0798 6886 or email sales@moldmach.com. We reply within 24 hours in English, Vietnamese or Spanish, and ship to Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the UAE, Mexico and beyond. New to buying from China? Start with buying a used injection molding machine from China.

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