EXW (Ex Works)
Supplier just has the goods ready at their door; you handle everything after.
Definition
EXW (Ex Works) is the Incoterm with the least supplier responsibility: the supplier simply makes the goods available at their own premises, and you take on every cost and risk from that point, including loading, export clearance, freight, insurance, and import. For an FBA seller, EXW means you or your forwarder handle everything from the factory door onward.
What EXW puts on you
Everything past the factory door: arranging pickup, export clearance in the supplier's country, freight, insurance, import duties, and delivery to FBA. It is the maximum-control, maximum-hassle end of the scale.
When EXW makes sense, and when it does not
In practice EXW is used mostly as a pricing benchmark, the cleanest ex-factory unit cost to compare, rather than an actual shipping arrangement. The reason: in China, export clearance must be filed by a licensed exporter with PRC customs registration, and under EXW your supplier is not obligated to provide that. Most suppliers will quietly handle it anyway, but if yours does not you are stuck at the factory gate, which is why sellers usually switch the term to FCA or FOB for the real shipment even when they first asked for an EXW price.
What EXW means for your landed cost
An EXW price is the barest unit cost there is. Origin handling, export, freight, duty, and destination delivery all stack on top, so an EXW quote understates landed cost more than any other Incoterm. Never compare an EXW quote head-to-head against an FOB or DDP one without adding those legs back in.
Related terms
Build the full cost on top of EXW
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