PCB, as a heavy object to send, always cost much while shipping from manufacturing plant to assembly house or OEM company.
Traditional shipping choice, same as all other international trade, are sea shipping and air shipping, air shipping includes express service and air cargo service.
Sea shipping: cheapest, longest with complicated procedures.
For most of the importers, sea shipping is not primary choice as they do not have such a volume to fill a container, and the biggest concern for PCB buyer is timing. They will not allow their circuit boards on the sea for over 25 days, it plays bad effect on their product development schedule and production circle.
Air shipping: most expensive, fastest delivery with simple procedures.
OEM companies now tends to use express service for PCB less than 20kgs. It is fast and not that expensive for such a small package. However, when the order comes a little bigger, the air shipping cost will be astonishing.
The third choice now goes to train, a trending shipping method between China and Europe.
It gives balance on timing and cost, even in some cases its cheaper than sea shipping, while much faster than it. Typically it uses 15-20 days to reach mid-eastern Europe such as Poland, Russia, Germen, Hungary, etc.
If an PCB importer ship a container from China to Europe, by sea it will cost about 800-1500 USD depending on its destination with 25-30 days on the go. By train? It cost about 700-800 USD and days from 15-20 days.
So if you are importing batch/routing PCB order from China, you should think about it seriously, why not?
Chee mau as a supplier of PCB, FPC, Ceramic PCB and PCB Assembly service, welcome your inquiry any time.