A new 40HC quotes in the range of $3,100 to $3,500 ex-works China. It is the volume product of the industry, roughly 94% of August production plans across the network, so it is the type with the most competitive and most stable pricing. Current figures are published in the monthly market report.
$3,100 to $3,500 ex-works for a standard-spec new 40HC, ISO type 45G1, sometimes written 40HQ. Both abbreviations describe the same 40' x 8' x 9'6" dry container, and a quotation that uses one is not offering something different from a quotation that uses the other.
Corten steel is the dominant input and the reason the range moves at all. Wall, roof and door panels, the underframe with its cross members, the corner castings and the door hardware account for most of the material cost.
The floor is the next line: 28 mm hardwood plywood at a minimum of nineteen plies, rated to pass a wheel test that presses 7,260 kg through a single patch. Cheaper floors exist and they are the first place a thin specification shows up.
Then the paint system, zinc-rich primer over shot-blasted steel with waterborne top coats, which is what a multi-year paint guarantee is written against. Finally the certification work: type-tested design under a classification society and per-unit survey at the plant, ending in the CSC plate.
Batch size, paint color and system, forklift pockets, additional lashing rings, door options such as double doors, and production branding. None of these are large individually. Together they account for most of the spread between the bottom and the top of the range.
For a plain standard 40HC delivered into the United States, one-trip depot stock is usually the more economical source once freight is counted, and the quotation says so when it is. A factory order earns its cost when you want your own color and logo applied on the production line, when you need a specification the depot market does not carry, or when you are buying into a market where depot surplus is thin.
The comparison is between landed numbers, not between an ex-works price and a depot price. Running it properly is the first step of any quotation we send.