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Sea freight services: Efficient and cost-effective

Transport your goods across the U.S. and worldwide with our cost-effective, sustainable sea freight services. As an FMC-certified Ocean Transportation Intermediary (OTI), Rhenus ensures full compliance with U.S. regulations while keeping your sea freight reliable and efficient for both imports and exports.

Sea freight services

With our sea freight services, you can ship your cargo worldwide through ocean freight shipping, supported by our long-standing partnerships with port operators and shipping lines, as well as our own fleet of vessels. We offer a wide range of solutions tailored to your requirements, including LCL, FCL and buyer’s and seller’s consolidation.

What we offer

Ship smaller loads efficiently with LCL, the smart way to share container space and reduce shipping costs in ocean freight shipping. This flexible, reliable solution helps importers and exporters respond to market demand without compromising delivery performance. Backed by FMC-certified sea freight services, Rhenus empowers your business to grow globally with cost-efficient ocean freight services, a practical alternative to air or rail.

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Shipping sea freight as FCL is the best choice when the volume between fixed origins and destinations ensures optimal utilization. Benefit from customized container shipping that is adapted to your needs, continuous shipment tracking and paperless booking and shipping instructions for distribution to sea shipping companies. As an FMC-certified Ocean Transportation Intermediary (OTI), Rhenus ensures full compliance with U.S. regulations while providing reliable, end-to-end ocean freight services tailored to your business.

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Combine LCL shipments into a single FCL container through buyer’s and seller’s consolidation. This ocean freight shipping method reduces costs, enhances supply chain transparency and improves cargo management, making it ideal for streamlined, cost-effective global logistics.

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Manage your offshore logistics with confidence through specialized sea freight services designed for complex marine operations – from safe crew transfers by ship or helicopter to reliable supply deliveries for offshore platforms. Our groupage services combine shipments for multiple sites to lower costs and minimize environmental impact, while customized transport plans support complete wind farm campaigns with maximum efficiency, safety and reliability.

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Your benefits

Ocean freight shipping is the most cost-effective transport option, helping you save money. Additionally, we tailor our services precisely to your specific logistics needs.

Ocean freight shipping is a highly sustainable option for the transport of sea freight.

Benefit from fixed departures and reliable transit times as well as optimized and stable supply chains and reliable availability.

Make use of our intercontinental transport services for trade routes and markets with the Deep Sea Transport service.

We take care of the complete coordination of your shipments with pre- and on-carriage and always comply with applicable regulations.

Why choose Rhenus

  • Strong network to support you around the globe: benefit from our gateway services, which are globally oriented yet locally focused
  • Strong partnerships with major shipping lines ensuring reliability and capacity worldwide
  • End-to-end services for sea freight forwarding
  • Flexible and customized sea freight solutions tailored to your business and industry
  • Real-time tracking for enhanced visibility and security
  • Digital efficiency through paperless booking and transparent online platforms
  • Strategic market expansion support to help you enter and expand in new markets, facilitated by our comprehensive support and strategic logistics planning

Value-added services for sea freight

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Sea freight handling

We take care of all your requirements when it comes to handling sea freight, be it intelligent storage, repackaging, neutralization, sorting, intelligent monitoring, labeling, checking shipments or palletizing.

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Document solutions

Document solutions for sea freight shipments: benefit from our proof of delivery and invoices on paper instead of sending them electronically. These are some of the most important documents in the transportation process, confirming that your shipment has been properly delivered. Courier services can also provide fast and reliable delivery of confidential documents to various countries.

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Customs clearance

Our experts ensure your sea freight shipments move smoothly across borders, always in line with the latest regulations. Whether you’re importing or exporting, we handle every aspect of customs clearance, directly or with trusted partners, so your cargo reaches its destination without delay.

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Marine cargo insurance

Our tailored transport insurance solutions safeguard the value of your freight - protecting your sea shipments against all risks of physical loss or damage during transport by land, sea or air. This coverage helps you effectively manage potential financial impacts while ensuring peace of mind. We understand that not all routes carry the same risks and not all goods have the same sensitivities, but with our insurance services, your cargo is always protected.

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E-solutions for your sea freight

We seamlessly integrate your IT systems with our own to automate the exchange of important business data such as shipping orders or status codes. This means you can rely on efficient processes. Our solution enables structured data to be transferred directly between computers according to an agreed standard, without manual intervention. This leads to improved data quality, fewer errors and faster processing of your transactions.

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Are you looking for a reliable and well connected partner in sea freight logistics?

Reach out to our experts, who will be happy to offer you extensive guidance and support.

Frequently asked questions

Sea freight refers to the transportation of goods by sea, i.e. by ship. It is used for various types of goods, from raw materials such as coal and oil to finished products such as cars and electronics. Companies often use ocean freight to transport large quantities of goods over long distances as it is usually more cost-effective compared to other means of transportation such as air freight or land transport, especially for long distances.

In general, air freight is more expensive than sea freight, mainly due to the higher cost of operating planes compared to ships, as well as the limited capacity of planes compared to cargo ships. Air freight is often used for urgent shipments or for goods that require fast delivery, while ocean freight is often used for larger quantities of goods over longer distances as it is generally more cost-effective.

You can choose between full charter services and general cargo shipments. We can handle any type of cargo, from containers to bulk and general cargo, from dangerous or liquid goods to heavy and oversized project cargo. For deep sea transportation, we use our long-standing relationships with reputable sea shipping companies to charter vessels and ensure that your goods arrive at their destination on time, anywhere in the world. For smaller deep sea shipments, we consolidate your freight on one ship and transport it to your chosen destination. Sea freight consolidation leads to cost savings for you.

With our consolidation services, you as the buyer can group your LCL shipments together with other orders from different suppliers to save costs. Your individual shipments are consolidated in one center and sent in a common container as an FCL shipment, which is then delivered to the destination. If you are acting as a seller, we can load your various shipments from the same point of origin into an FCL container and send them directly to the port of destination. There, the consignments are unloaded and distributed to the appropriate recipients. This saves you time and effort when shipping your sea freight and, at the same time, you benefit from greater transparency and control over your transport chain.