Export & Freight

Shipping a Drilling Rig Overseas: Containers, Flat Racks and What Freight Really Costs

By Windrilling Technical Team – Updated October 2026 – 13 min read

A buyer in East Africa sent us his own container calculation last month. He had measured the rig, decided it would fit a 40 ft box, and asked only for the difference between FCL and LCL. It would not fit. Not with the mast up, and not with the tracks still on.

We sent him the mast-down height drawing instead. The quote changed by a few thousand dollars and he saved a week of arguing at the port.

Freight is the part of a rig purchase nobody enjoys quoting. The machine is only half the cost. Cranes, containers, insurance, port charges and the last 300 km on a low-bed truck decide whether your project starts on schedule or sits in a yard collecting demurrage.

This is how rig shipping actually works, and where the money goes.

Three Numbers Decide Everything

Before anyone talks about rates, three numbers have to be on the table. Not approximate numbers from a brochure. Measured numbers from the machine you are actually buying.

• Shipping weight. Bare machine weight is not the shipping weight. Fuel, hydraulic oil, water in the system, the tool box, the spare rod bundle and the crate of bits all add up. A rig quoted at 12 t can leave the factory at 14 t.
• Footprint with the mast down. Overall length and width in transport position. The travelling dimension is what the container or flat rack has to accept.
• Height in transport position. This is the number that turns a container shipment into a flat rack or break bulk shipment. On most crawler rigs the mast folds, but “folded” still means two and a half to three metres on many models.

Ask for the shipping drawing, not the sales brochure. Every rig we quote ships with a dimension drawing and an actual weighbridge ticket, and both should match the booking.

Will It Fit in a Container? The Numbers That Matter

Standard ISO containers are the cheapest way to move drilling equipment. They are also unforgiving. The box has a fixed internal volume and a fixed maximum gross weight, and the second limit catches more buyers than the first.

Container type	Internal length x width x height	Tare	Practical payload
20 ft general purpose	5.90 x 2.35 x 2.39 m	~2.2-2.4 t	~28 t (max gross 30.48 t)
40 ft general purpose	12.03 x 2.35 x 2.39 m	~3.7-4.0 t	~26 t (max gross 30.48 t)
40 ft high cube	12.03 x 2.35 x 2.69 m	~3.9-4.2 t	~26 t (max gross 30.48 t)
20 ft flat rack	5.6-6.1 m platform, no roof or side walls	~2.5-2.8 t	~28-31 t, cargo may overhang the platform ends
40 ft flat rack	12.0-12.1 m platform, no roof or side walls	~5.0-5.5 t	~30-40 t depending on the rack rating

Two notes on that table. Container internals vary by a few centimetres between shipping lines, and the 30.48 t figure is the container’s own rating, not the legal limit on the road. Several countries in Africa and South America restrict a 40 ft road load to roughly 24-28 t total, which quietly reduces your payload. If your destination has weak road infrastructure, plan the weight around the road, not around the box.

What normally goes inside a general purpose container without drama: air compressors, mud pumps, drill rods, bits, core barrels, consumables and spares. A TDS-C650 compressor, for example, measures 2,700 x 1,450 x 1,650 mm and weighs about 1,650 kg, so it travels two to a 40 ft container with room left for rod racks. Our drilling tools range is built to pack this way on purpose.

What usually does not go inside: a complete crawler rig with the mast assembled, or a truck mounted rig that still has its chassis and cab. Machines like the WD-W260 water well rig or the WD-C600 core rig are built to drill, not to fold into a 2.39 m box. They ship on a flat rack, as break bulk, or roll on and roll off under their own power.

Four Ways a Rig Actually Ships

Mode	What it suits	What to watch
FCL – full container load	Compressors, pumps, rods, bits, spares and small skid-mounted units	Payload ceiling and road limits; the load has to be lashed inside the box
Flat rack	Rigs whose transport height or width exceeds a container but whose footprint fits a platform	Cargo is exposed to weather and salt air; lashing is done with chains and is inspected at the port
Break bulk	Full-size crawler rigs, multiple units on one shipment, awkward long masts	Booked as project cargo; needs cranes at both ports and usually a forwarder who handles heavies
RoRo – roll on / roll off	Self-propelled wheeled or tracked machines that can be driven or winched aboard	Only works at RoRo-capable ports; fuel level and battery isolation rules apply

RoRo is the mode people forget, and for the right machine it is the cheapest and fastest of the four. A rubber-tyred water well rig that can drive itself onto a RoRo deck avoids cranes entirely. A crawler rig needs to be winched, and the port has to accept tracked cargo.

For self-propelled crawler units such as the WD-ZJ516 DTH rig, we normally price two options side by side – flat rack plus crane, and RoRo – because the answer flips depending on which port your project is near.

FCL or LCL for Tools, Rods and Spares

LCL is priced per cubic metre, so it looks cheap when you are shipping eight boxes of bits and a rod bundle. It stops looking cheap once the volume grows, because LCL gets handled at a consolidation warehouse at both ends and every extra handling step is a chance to lose or dent something.

The rough rule we use when advising buyers: below about 12-15 CBM, LCL is usually the sensible choice. Above that, price both. Once you are past 18-20 CBM the ocean leg of an LCL shipment often costs more than a 20 ft FCL, and the FCL arrives faster because there is no destuffing queue at the destination CFS.

• Rod bundles and long core barrels are awkward in LCL – they get cross-loaded and the ends get bruised.
• Container Freight Station handling is charged per CBM on top of the ocean rate at both ends.
• At destination, LCL waits for the CFS to release, which can add days to a project start.

What “Shipping Cost” Really Contains

When a buyer asks for “the freight price”, they usually mean the ocean rate. That is often less than half of what actually leaves their bank account. A complete international move of a rig has seven blocks of cost, and only the first one is the ocean rate.

Cost block	Who normally pays on FOB	What it covers
Ocean freight	Buyer’s forwarder	The sailing itself, plus bunker and peak-season surcharges
Origin charges	Buyer’s forwarder (or included in our FOB quote, depending on terms)	Terminal handling, customs export declaration, container pickup and stuffing
Export documentation	Split by agreement	Invoice, packing list, certificate of origin, mill test certificates, consular or conformity papers
Origin drayage / inland haulage	Buyer’s forwarder	Trucking the container from the factory to the loading port
Marine insurance	Buyer, unless CIF	Usually 110% of CIF value, all-risks cover for project cargo
Destination charges	Buyer	Terminal handling at destination, customs clearance, agency fees, examination if flagged
Demurrage, detention, storage	Buyer	Charged once the container or cargo sits past the free days
Inland transport to site	Buyer	Low-bed or multi-axle trucking, permits and escorts for over-width cargo

For scale, public market data from September 2026 put a 40 ft container from Shanghai to Los Angeles at roughly US$7,350 and Shanghai to Rotterdam at roughly US$4,000, with a 20 ft typically priced at 60-70% of the 40 ft rate on the same lane. LCL was quoted in the US$40-180 per CBM band depending on route, terminal handling around US$150-400 per container, drayage US$400-1,200, and demurrage in the US$150-450 per day range after the free period.

Read those as market indicators from a third-party freight platform, dated September 2026, not as our quotation. Ocean rates move weekly, peak season moves them faster, and your actual number depends on the lane, the equipment and how early you book.

Incoterms: Where Your Responsibility Starts

Most arguments about freight are not really about money. They are about the handover point. Who books the container, who clears which customs, and who pays when something goes wrong at three in the morning.

Term	We handle up to	You handle from	Used for
EXW	Factory gate	Everything, including loading at our yard	Buyers with their own China agent
FOB	Export clearance and delivery onto the vessel at the Chinese port	Ocean freight, insurance, destination clearance	The most common term for rig purchases
CFR	Ocean freight to destination port	Insurance and everything after the port	Buyers who want the rate locked by us
CIF	Ocean freight and marine insurance to destination port	Destination clearance, duties, inland transport	First-time importers who want the fewest moving parts
DAP	Delivery to your named address, usually your site	Import duty, VAT and unloading	Buyers who want the machine at the gate
DDP	Everything including duty	Unloading and site work	Rare for rigs; duty treatment varies too much by country

If it is your first rig import, CIF is often the calmest option, because one party books the sailing and arranges the insurance. If you already have a forwarder who knows your port, FOB usually saves money and gives you more control over the schedule. Whichever you choose, write the delivery point into the contract in plain words – “FOB Shanghai” is not the same as “FOB any Chinese port”.

Packing and Lashing: What to Ask For

A machine that drills a 300 m hole can be destroyed by six weeks of salt air and a badly chained flat rack. The packing list matters as much as the specification sheet.

• Rust prevention before anything else. Bare hydraulic rods, drill rod threads and machined faces need grease or protective film. Fuel and hydraulic reservoirs should be topped to reduce condensation inside the tank.
• Battery and fuel protocol. Batteries are usually disconnected, terminals insulated, and fuel kept at a low level with the cap sealed for RoRo and break bulk shipments.
• Lashing to a written plan. Chain binders with edge protection on the frame, timber blocking under the tracks, and wheel chocks for wheeled units. Loose chains work themselves slack in the first two days at sea.
• Loose items boxed and listed. Tools, spares, manuals and the control panel keys should be in a locked crate with an inventory inside and the same inventory on the packing list.
• Photos before the doors close. Ask for container loading photos and the container and seal numbers. If the box arrives with a different seal, you want the evidence in your inbox, not in an argument six weeks later.
• Spares packed by machine. If you buy two rigs, keep their spare kits separated and labelled, or the first breakdown will be spent sorting pistons instead of drilling.

On break bulk and flat rack loads, add marine insurance with a project cargo clause. General cargo cover written for pallets rarely behaves the way you expect when a 25 t rig shifts on deck.

The Documents That Travel With the Container

A rig that clears customs in three days and a rig that sits for three weeks are usually separated by paperwork, not by luck. The commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading, certificate of origin and any conformity certificate have to agree with each other, down to the number of packages and the container and seal numbers.

If your destination runs a pre-shipment conformity programme, the inspection has to happen before the container leaves China, not after it arrives. We cover the classification and paperwork side in detail in our guide to drilling rig HS codes and export documents, including which certificate applies in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Nigeria.

Six Ways Buyers Overpay on Rig Freight

1. Quoting before the height is measured. A container rate on a machine that does not fit costs a week and a repack.
2. Assuming one 40 ft rate fits every 40 ft load. A 30 t machine on a 40 ft flat rack is priced as project cargo, not as a commodity box.
3. Booking LCL out of habit. Past 15-20 CBM, LCL usually loses on both cost and transit time.
4. Forgetting the destination side. Terminal handling, agency fees, clearance and the low-bed to site are real money, and they are not in the ocean rate.
5. Booking late in peak season. Rates and space both tighten in the weeks before major holidays; booking a month earlier often saves more than negotiating the rate.
6. Skipping insurance on project cargo. A bent mast on a flat rack is a five-figure repair, and uninsured it is your five-figure repair.

There is a seventh, and it is the most expensive of all: buying the machine before checking how it will be paid for at the destination. Duty, clearance and inland transport in some markets add a serious percentage to the landed cost. That is why we would rather give you the freight breakdown early, while the model choice is still open – if the landed cost is the constraint, a different rig size or a different shipment split may solve it. Our notes on buying a drilling rig from China cover the commercial side of the same decision.

Questions Buyers Ask Before Booking

How many containers does a drilling rig need?

A complete package – rig plus compressor, rods, bits, mud pump and spares – typically fills one 40 ft container for the tools and consumables, while the rig itself travels on a flat rack or as break bulk. Small skid rigs and portable units can go inside a single 20 ft or 40 ft container together with part of the tooling.

Do you ship the rig with the mast up?

No. The mast is folded or partially removed for transport, and the exact transport height comes from the shipping drawing for that model. It is the first document we send once a machine is shortlisted, because it decides both the cost and the schedule.

Who arranges the crane at the destination port?

On FOB and CIF, you do. Your forwarder or clearing agent books the crane and the low-bed truck, and it is worth confirming both before the vessel sails, not after. On DAP, we arrange delivery to your named address and you arrange unloading at site.

Can you load our own drill rods with the rig?

Usually yes, and it is cheaper to consolidate one shipment than to send two. Send us the rod lengths and quantity in metres so we can confirm the bundle fits the container before the booking is confirmed.

How long does shipment take after the order?

Standard models usually load four to six weeks after deposit, plus the sailing time for your lane and a few days for destination clearance. Where a pre-shipment conformity inspection is required, add a week before the container is allowed to leave. We give you the loading date and the vessel schedule in writing with the quotation.

What if the rig arrives with damage?

Photograph the container seals and the damage before unloading, notify the carrier and your insurer the same day, and send us the photos. With loading photos on file from our side, a claim is a paperwork exercise instead of a dispute about when the damage happened.