A cargo ship navigating the open sea, loaded with colorful shipping containers, representing efficient freight transportation and global logistics services.

Sea freight

From Bali to a port anywhere in the world. Limajari handles everything in between.

Sea freight is the standard choice for export from Bali. It costs significantly less than air freight, handles any volume without weight limits, and works for everything from furniture and garments to stone carvings and bulk goods.

Limajari Cargo has been handling sea freight shipments from Bali since 1993. We offer three options: Full Container Load (FCL), Less than Container Load (LCL), and consolidation, a service we run ourselves to France and other selected destinations.

The route (full container)

Bali to Tanjung Perak

How your goods get from Bali to the world

Bali has no international container port. All sea freight from the island travels overland by truck to Tanjung Perak, the port of Surabaya in East Java. It’s the second-busiest container port in Indonesia, handling around four million TEUs per year, and it connects to major carriers serving Europe, Australia, North America, and the rest of Asia.

We manages the full journey: pickup from your supplier or warehouse in Bali, packing, documents, fumigation if required, customs clearance in Surabaya, loading onto the vessel, and freight to the destination port. You don’t need a separate local trucking company or a port agent in Surabaya: we take care of it.

By the numbers

5 dedicated sea freight customer service agents
90+ specialized pickup and packing staff
1,000+ sea freight expeditions annually
30,000+ cbm shipped every year
FCL, LCL, and Consolidation
Global destination coverage

FCL or LCL

It comes down to volume.

With a Full Container Load (FCL), you fill an entire container yourself. No other cargo shares the space, there’s no consolidation or deconsolidation at the other end, and your container moves directly from origin to destination. It’s faster and generally lower-risk. As a rough guide, if your shipment exceeds 15 cubic meters, FCL is usually more cost-effective.

With Less than Container Load (LCL), your goods share a container with other shippers’ cargo. You pay only for the space you use, which makes it the right choice for smaller volumes. The tradeoff is a slightly longer transit: cargo needs to be consolidated before departure and deconsolidated on arrival, which typically adds a few days at each end.

Not sure which applies to your shipment? Our team is happy to advise.

Limajari Cargo offers three container sizes for FCL:

CONTAINER	INTERNAL VOLUME	BEST FOR
20-foot	~33 cbm	Medium shipments, dense cargo
40-foot	~67 cbm	Large shipments
40-foot High Cube	~76 cbm	Tall or bulky items

Consolidation ?

Let’s join forces: share a container, split the cost

We run our own regular consolidation service to France, with departures to both Le Havre and Marseille. Instead of waiting to fill a full container yourself, your goods travel alongside other clients’ cargo, and you only pay for your share of the space.

It’s a practical option for regular buyers who work with multiple Bali suppliers, or for anyone shipping volumes that are too large for LCL but not quite enough to justify a full container.

We also offer consolidation to a selection of other destinations. Contact us to check availability for your route.

Container stuffing

Not your standard container load

Loading a container properly is more demanding than it looks, and in Bali, it’s genuinely a specialised skill. The containers leaving our warehouse look nothing like a standard commercial shipment. A single FCL might hold stone sculptures of different weights and heights, handcrafted furniture in unusual dimensions, ceramic pieces requiring individual bracing, and smaller decorative items filling the gaps in between. No two loads are alike.

A crew that has seen it all

Each of our warehouses has a dedicated stuffing crew, and several of our team members have been doing this work for 20 to 30 years. That depth of experience matters, not just for efficiency, but for the judgment calls that can’t be written into a checklist. Knowing how a carved sandstone piece will behave over a five-week ocean transit, or how humidity affects rattan during a sealed container voyage, comes from years on the floor, not a manual.

Weight, balance, and transit stress

Getting the arrangement right means thinking about weight distribution, transit stress, and how each piece interacts with everything around it. Industry guidelines recommend keeping the heaviest cargo low and centred, with weight distributed evenly across the container floor to prevent racking forces during handling and sea swell. A poorly stuffed container risks shifting cargo, crushed items, and damage claims at destination.

Every load is planned before the first piece goes in

Our team assesses the full cargo manifest before stuffing begins, grouping items by fragility and weight class, and mapping the layout in advance. Void filling, dunnage bags, and custom bracing are used where needed to eliminate movement. When the doors close, nothing moves.

Transit times

Approximate transit times from Tanjung Perak

These are port-to-port estimates. Door-to-door timing will vary depending on customs clearance at the destination, final delivery, and vessel schedules.

Destination	Approximate transit
Australia (main ports)	12–18 days
Singapore	3–5 days
North Asia (China, Japan, South Korea)	10–18 days
Middle East	18–25 days
Europe (Le Havre, Marseille, Rotterdam)	30–45 days
USA (West Coast)	25–35 days
USA (East Coast)	35–45 days

Transit times for FCL are generally shorter than LCL because FCL containers don’t stop for consolidation and deconsolidation. LCL should be planned with additional buffer of 5–10 days.

Our cargo services in Bali

All-inclusive logistics, every time you ship.

Pickup

Packing

Documents

Licenses

Fumigation

Customs

Freight

Pickup

Goods collected anywhere in Bali, transported to our warehouses.

Packing

Export crating, palletizing, packing matched to the cargo type.

Documents

PEB, packing lists, commercial invoices, certificates of origin, all prepared in-house.

Licenses

Export permits for wood, stone, marine and animal products, exotic skins.

Fumigation

Fumigation or ISPM 15 treatment, per destination country rules.

Customs

PEB filing and clearance with Bea Cukai.

Freight

Air or sea, matched to your timeline and budget.

Insurance Money Mgmt

Insurance

Cargo covered from first to last mile.

Money Management

Bali supplier payments, settled through us.

Shipping from Java

For clients based in Java, we currently offer FCL shipping only. If you’re exporting from Semarang (Jepara or Yogyakarta), or Jakarta, we can arrange trucking, export documentation, and loading at Tanjung Perak.

For LCL or consolidation from Java, it’s possible to first bring your goods to Bali by road, where our full range of services applies.

Storage in Bali

Up to 3 months, at no extra charge

Supplier timelines don’t always match shipping schedules. We offer up to three months of complimentary storage for goods awaiting export, which can be split across the shipment: before and after, as needed.

Storage beyond three months is possible with advance notice; fees apply. Visit our storage page for full details.

Freight cost factors

Video by Sunny (FR)

Pricing

How sea freight is quoted

What your quote covers

Limajari Cargo sea freight quotes are tailored to your shipment and can be issued on different trade terms depending on your needs. Most quotes are either CFR (cost and freight) or CIF (cost, insurance, and freight) to the port of destination. CIF adds basic cargo insurance to the freight cost. For shipments where the buyer arranges their own insurance, a CFR quote may be more appropriate. In some cases, quotes can also be issued on FOB terms, covering costs only up to the point of loading at the origin.

If you’re unsure which terms apply to your shipment, we’ll guide you through it.

How pricing is calculated

For FCL shipments, pricing is a flat rate per container, regardless of the weight or volume of goods inside. For LCL and consolidation shipments, pricing is calculated per cubic metre.

One thing worth noting: FCL quotes do not include packing. For LCL and consolidation shipments, packing is included in the price.

What falls outside the quote

Import duties, VAT, port taxes, delivery fees, and customs clearance at the destination are not included in any quote. These costs are the responsibility of the importer and vary depending on the destination country and the nature of the goods.

Get a personalised quote

Fill out our free quotation form, and we’ll come back to you quickly with pricing tailored to your shipment.

Before shipping with us

Take a moment to read our Standard Trading Conditions.

Standard Trading Conditions