FCA

FCA (Free Carrier) is the modern, more flexible cousin of FOB. The seller delivers the goods to the buyer’s nominated carrier at a named place. Two common variants:

1. FCA Factory, seller delivers the goods to the buyer’s carrier at the seller’s premises (the factory). Seller handles export clearance.
2. FCA Port, seller delivers the goods to the buyer’s carrier at a named container freight station, port terminal, or airport.

Risk and cost transfer at the named delivery point. From there the buyer is responsible for sea freight (or air freight), insurance, and destination-side costs.

Why FCA exists alongside FOB

FOB is technically only appropriate for cargo that crosses the ship’s rail at the load port, a 20th-century concept built for break-bulk cargo manually loaded over the rail. For modern containerised cargo, the cargo is delivered to the terminal, sealed in the container, and lifted onto the vessel by gantry crane. The seller’s responsibility under FOB ends at the ship’s rail, but the cargo is in the carrier’s custody from the moment it enters the container terminal, there is a gap of several hours to days during which the cargo is technically in the carrier’s terminal but the FOB risk has not yet transferred.

FCA fixes this. Risk transfers when the seller hands the cargo to the buyer’s carrier. For container cargo, “the carrier” is typically the carrier’s CFS or terminal. The handover is clean and there is no gap.

For air freight, FCA is the standard Incoterm. FOB does not technically apply to air freight at all (no ship’s rail).

FCA Factory vs EXW Factory

FCA Factory is the practical fix for the EXW Chinese-export-clearance trap. Under EXW, the buyer is responsible for export customs, but Chinese export customs require a Chinese-resident filer, which most foreign buyers’ freight forwarders cannot do directly. Under FCA Factory, the seller handles export clearance (same as FOB) but the buyer’s truck collects from the factory rather than the seller arranging delivery to the port (as under FOB).

For volume buyers with their own China-side logistics partner who want to consolidate cargo from multiple factories at a CFS before sealing into containers, FCA Factory is the right tool, seller handles export, buyer’s logistics partner handles consolidation and onward freight.

When FCA Port is the right choice

FCA Port (or FCA CFS) works for two scenarios:

1. Air freight from China. FOB does not apply; FCA Airport (e.g. FCA PVG for Shanghai Pudong) is the standard.
2. Buyer’s freight forwarder consolidates at a port-of-loading CFS. Multiple factory cargoes are delivered to the same CFS by their respective sellers under FCA, then consolidated by the buyer’s forwarder into containers for the sea voyage.

FCA in chemical imports

For routine industrial chemical exports from China by sea to a single buyer with a single destination, FOB is fine and is what most factories quote. FCA becomes the right call when:

1. The buyer is consolidating cargo from multiple Chinese factories
2. The cargo is moving by air rather than sea
3. The buyer has a specific freight-forwarder relationship that handles cargo from a CFS rather than the ship’s rail
4. The buyer wants the cleaner FCA risk-transfer point that closes the FOB ship’s-rail gap

Practical sourcing notes

When we run a multi-factory consolidation for a single buyer, we typically structure each factory contract as FCA Factory with the buyer’s nominated forwarder collecting from each factory. This eliminates the FOB ship’s-rail gap (each factory hands off cleanly at their own gate), simplifies the documentation chain (each factory has its own export filing, no mixed-shipper FOB at the load port), and gives the buyer’s forwarder full control of consolidation and container booking.

For single-factory single-destination cargo, we stick with FOB. It is what factories quote by default, what the trade documentation flows through cleanly, and what the buyer’s destination customs entry expects.

Related terms

EXW is the alternative for buyers willing to handle Chinese export customs themselves. FOB is the dominant Incoterm for sea freight from China. CIF extends FOB to include freight and insurance. DDP is the seller-heaviest Incoterm at the far end of the spectrum.