Work out your export price
From your factory gate to your buyer’s port, in your currency and your buyer’s, per unit and per shipment.
Fills the form with the 25 MTS polypropylene shipment used as the example throughout this page.
How an export price is built, step by step
An export quote is a ladder. Each step adds a set block of cost, and your price has to say which step it stops at. Quoting "USD 1,600 per tonne" means nothing until the buyer knows whether that is at your gate or delivered to their port.
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1
At your gate (EXW) What you paid for the goods plus the Sales tax on them, plus your mark-up. The buyer takes over at your gate and pays for everything after that.
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2
Loaded and hauled to the port (FOR) Adds transport from your works to the port. Common in Indian contracts and often left out of international templates, which is why it is a frequent hidden cost.
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3
On board at the port (FOB) Adds customs clearance, agent fees and port handling. Risk passes to the buyer once the goods are on board. This is the step most exporters quote, and the one an export refund is normally worked out on.
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4
Freight paid to their port (CFR) Adds sea or air freight to the buyer's port. You buy that freight in dollars at your bank's higher rate while you are paid at its lower one — that gap is a real cost most spreadsheets miss.
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5
Freight and insurance paid (CIF) Adds marine insurance, normally written on 110% of the goods-and-freight value to cover the buyer's expected profit.
Sales tax on your inputs is cash flow, not cost
Exports are tax-free almost everywhere. Your export invoice carries no Sales tax at all, and the Sales tax on what you bought to make the goods is recoverable in the normal way. Either way it is cash passing through, not a cost of the goods. Put it in your price and you are dearer than your rivals by exactly that amount.
Where the mark-up should sit
Adding it to the bare goods cost is the careful choice, and the most common one. Adding it further up — after transport or port costs — earns mark-up on those too, which is fair when you carry the risk on them. What matters is being consistent, because switching between quotes makes your real margins impossible to compare.
The exchange rate trap
A 1% move in the rate on a USD 40,000 shipment is USD 400 of margin, gained or lost before anything ships. Even a week of quote validity carries real currency risk, which is why this calculator shows the delivered price at ±2% and ±5% on the rate. If the shipment stops paying at −2%, shorten how long the quote holds, or hedge.