Mersin to Jakarta
Caustic soda flakes, 110 tonnes, UN 1823 Class 8. First shipment on this lane. Four of eight approached forwarders quoted.
Take Option A at $116.82 per tonne. It is not the lowest number on the page, and the lowest number on the page is not what you would actually pay.
Option D quotes $99.55 per tonne and looks 15% cheaper. It excludes the dangerous goods surcharge, destination terminal handling and the Cikarang delivery leg. Adding those at market rates brings it to roughly $121 per tonne, above Option A, and its price is held for only seven days.
Against the $132 per tonne indication you were given informally, Option A saves about $1,670 on this shipment. At one shipment a quarter that is roughly $6,700 a year.
The options
All figures US dollars, all-in for 110 tonnes, ex-works Mersin plant to consignee warehouse in Cikarang unless stated. Per-tonne on net weight.
| Forwarder | All-in | Per tonne | Transit | Valid | Routing | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pick | A. Meridian Hat Lojistik Mersin |
$12,850 | $116.82 | 28 days | 21 days | Transhipment Port Klang, then road to Cikarang |
| B. Karasu Global Forwarding İstanbul |
$11,400 | $103.64 | 41 days | 30 days | Two transhipments, Jebel Ali and Singapore | |
| C. Cakrawala Freight Services Jakarta |
$14,600 | $132.73 | 24 days | 14 days | Transhipment Colombo, local B3 support included | |
| Care | D. Selatan Line Logistics Singapore |
$10,950 | $99.55 | 33 days | 7 days | Port to port only. Not a like-for-like quote |
Option D excludes the Class 8 surcharge, destination handling, import clearance and the 45 km road leg. At current market levels those add roughly $2,350 across five containers, putting it near $121 per tonne. Option B is genuinely cheaper at $103.64, and the trade is thirteen extra days and a second transhipment. That one is a real choice.
Detail
Option A · Meridian Hat
RecommendedIncludes inland haulage from the plant, export customs, Class 8 surcharge and DG documentation, ocean freight, terminal handling both ends, import clearance, road delivery to Cikarang, DG segregation at both terminals.
Excludes marine insurance, Indonesian duty and VAT, demurrage past 14 free days, B3 registration fees payable by the consignee.
Why this one. Single transhipment, longest validity of the four, and they hold DG documentation capability in-house rather than subcontracting, which keeps the surcharge at $290 a container against $400 to $500 elsewhere. They have moved Class 8 on this corridor within six months and named the carrier and service unprompted. Fourteen free days at destination is above the norm and worth having on a first shipment.
Option B · Karasu Global
Cheapest workableSame door-to-door scope, ten free days at destination. Saves $1,450 against Option A, which is real money on a first shipment.
The exposure. Two transhipments with an unguaranteed feeder connection at Singapore is exactly where Class 8 cargo sits, because terminals deprioritise DG containers when rolling boxes. If it rolls once you lose about two weeks and the saving stops being a saving. Take it if the ready date is soft and the consignee has no fixed delivery date.
Option C · Cakrawala Freight
Full door-to-door, and they will act as local contact for the consignee's B3 documentation, which nobody else offered.
You pay about $1,750 over Option A for four fewer days and that local support. On a first shipment into an unfamiliar regulatory regime that is a defensible premium, though we would not pay it twice.
Option D · Selatan Line
Would not takeQuoted port to port against a door-to-door brief, so the headline is not like for like. Restated it lands above Option A while taking five days longer, and the seven day validity means the price is unlikely to still be live when your consignee confirms.
We include it because you should see the whole field. It is not bad faith. It is what happens when a brief is answered quickly by someone quoting their standard scope.
Documentation and permits
Class 8 cargo into Indonesia carries more paperwork than general cargo, and some of it sits with the consignee rather than with you.
| Document | Obtained by | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial invoice and packing list | You | Packing list must show net and gross per pallet. |
| Certificate of origin | You | Chamber of Commerce endorsement in Mersin. Allow 2 to 3 working days. |
| Safety data sheet | You | Current, in English. Indonesian translation commonly requested at clearance. |
| Certificate of analysis | You | Per batch. Also needed for the consignee's B3 filing. |
| Dangerous goods declaration | Forwarder | IMDG format. Included in A, B and C. Chargeable under D. |
| Container packing certificate | Forwarder | Confirm DG placarding is applied at the plant, not the port. |
| Bill of lading | Forwarder | Check telex release. Two forwarders quoted an extra fee. |
| Marine insurance certificate | You | Not included in any quote. Budget 0.15% to 0.35% of CIF value for Class 8. |
| B3 import registration | Consignee | Indonesian importer obligation, Ministry of Environment and Forestry. |
| Import licence and declaration | Consignee | Indonesian importer of record. |
Indonesia regulates hazardous and toxic substances under its B3 framework, administered by the Ministry of Environment and Forestry under MoEF Regulation 36/2017. Depending on how the substance is listed, an importer completes either a registration or a notification before first import, supported by substance identity, business licence, tax identification, SDS, certificate of analysis and evidence of warehousing.
This obligation sits with your consignee, not with you, which is exactly why it gets missed. Class 8 cargo waiting at Tanjung Priok accrues charges quickly. Confirm in writing that your consignee holds the registration for sodium hydroxide before you book, and ask for the reference number. If they do not have it, Option C's local support becomes worth considerably more than the $1,750 premium suggests.
Eleven routings built. Four priced. Three worth reading.
The engine built eleven viable routings between Gebze and Cikarang across sea, road and combinations of both, and scored each for permits, inspection exposure and chokepoint contact. Six were discarded on the score before anyone was asked to price them.
The surviving routings went out on 19 August to eight specialist forwarders: three from our network in Türkiye, three based in or covering Indonesia, two regional specialists in Class 8 cargo. All received the same information at the same time and were told how many parties were quoting. Four quoted, two declined, two never replied.
Both declines cited no Class 8 capability into Indonesia, which is useful in itself and is why we now ask about it upfront on this corridor. Median time to first response was 31 hours. The fastest complete quote arrived in 19.
We normalised four responses that arrived on three different bases in two currencies. Where a quote excluded something the others included, we added a market estimate and labelled it as an estimate rather than a quoted figure.
Route World takes no commission or fee from any forwarder listed here and holds no commercial relationship with them. You contract directly with whoever you choose.
Next steps for this shipment
- Confirm your consignee's B3 registration status for sodium hydroxide, in writing, with the reference number.
- Confirm UN certification on your 25 kg bags with your packaging supplier.
- Tell us which option you want and we will introduce you directly. Option A's price is held until 14 September.
Sample document. The client, the forwarders, the rates and the findings above are invented for illustration. Regulatory references are indicative and would be confirmed per shipment in a real report. Figures marked as restated are calculations at prevailing market levels, not quotations.
What would this look like for a shipment of yours?
Brief one lane and find out. Ten minutes to describe it, five working days to the answer.