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Sourcing glossary

FCA

Also known as: Free Carrier

An Incoterm for any mode of transport under which the seller clears goods for export and hands them to the carrier nominated by the buyer at a named place, where risk passes to the buyer.

FCA is always followed by a named place, for example FCA Yiwu warehouse or FCA Shenzhen airport. If that place is the seller's premises, delivery is complete once the goods are loaded onto the buyer's vehicle; at any other place, it is complete once the goods arrive there on the seller's transport, ready for unloading. The buyer books and pays the main carriage.

For Chinese suppliers, FCA is often a better fit than FOB for air freight, LCL and containers handed over at a terminal, because risk passes when your forwarder takes the goods rather than when they are loaded on a ship. Incoterms 2020 also lets the parties agree that the buyer's carrier issues an on-board bill of lading to the seller, which helps with letters of credit. See EXW vs FOB vs DDP for how FCA sits between EXW and FOB.

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Part of Incoterms & Payment.

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