Knitwear Landed Cost: Duty, Freight & the True Cost of Importing Sweaters

The FOB price on your knitwear quote is not what your sweaters actually cost you. By the time goods reach your warehouse, you've also paid freight, insurance, import duty, customs fees and a handful of smaller charges. That all-in number is your landed cost — and it's the only figure you should use to set retail prices and margins. This guide shows what goes into landed cost for imported knitwear and how to estimate it before you commit.

Brands that price off the FOB number alone routinely under-price their product and erode margin. Always build your retail price from landed cost, not factory cost.

Import duty depends on the knitwear's classification (HS code) and your destination country's tariff schedule and trade agreements. Two brands importing similar sweaters into different countries can pay very different rates. Before you commit:

• Identify the likely HS code for your knit garment (your customs broker can confirm).
• Check the duty rate for that code into your market — and whether any trade agreement reduces it.
• Remember duty is usually charged on the customs value, not just FOB.

This is also why sourcing-country choice matters beyond unit price — see China vs Vietnam vs Bangladesh sourcing.

For a rough landed cost per unit, before placing an order:

1. Start with the FOB unit price (read it correctly first — see how to read a knitwear quotation). 2. Add freight per unit = total freight ÷ units in the shipment. (Full containers are far cheaper per unit than small LCL or air shipments.) 3. Add duty = duty rate × customs value. 4. Add fees + inland freight per unit. 5. The total is your landed cost — base your margin on this.

Freight and fixed import costs are spread across the units in a shipment, so landed cost per unit falls as volume rises. A tiny first order carries high per-unit freight; a container-scale order spreads it thin. This is part of why MOQs exist and why reorders get cheaper per piece — see the custom sweater MOQ guide and knitwear reorders and scaling. Sanity-check your assumptions against the 2026 sourcing benchmark report.

• Pricing retail off FOB and discovering the margin isn't there
• Forgetting duty entirely until the customs bill arrives
• Choosing air freight under deadline pressure (fast, but expensive per unit)
• Ignoring per-unit freight on small first orders
• Not budgeting a buffer for fees and delays

Licheng Knitwear quotes a transparent FOB with the gauge, yarn, weight and Incoterm stated, so you can build an accurate landed cost on top of it. Tell us your product, target quantity and destination market and request a quote — or browse product directions to start from a style. Knowing your true landed cost up front is the difference between a healthy margin and a surprise.