A one-trip container in a European depot is a new container that has already crossed the ocean. It left a Chinese factory, carried one paying cargo to Europe, and was released for sale at the depot where it was discharged. Buying one is a different transaction from ordering a factory batch: the unit exists, it has a price, and the questions worth asking are about release, customs and collection rather than about production slots.
Every line on the European depot list carries one of three states, and the state is the single most useful thing on the line. It sets when you can have the unit, what has to happen before you can, and roughly where the price sits.
In depot means the unit is stacked in the port depot and has been checked in. You pay, the release is issued, your truck collects. Days rather than weeks, and the shortest path from decision to container on your ground.
Arriving means the unit has been discharged and is moving into the depot, or is on a last leg by rail or truck. You can reserve it now, and it releases once the depot has received and checked it. The quotation states the expected date rather than a guaranteed one, because the depot has to physically receive the box first.
Gate-buy means the unit is still on a vessel with a known arrival date, and you take it at the terminal gate on that date instead of after it has been lifted into a depot. Skipping the depot handling is why it is the sharpest price on the list. It also means you collect on the day, so it suits a buyer with a truck arranged and somewhere to put the box.
We supply the container ex-depot. What happens next is your decision and it changes who has paperwork to do.
If the unit leaves Europe on your own booking as a shipper-owned container, it is exported, and no import step is normally needed. Shipper-owned means exactly that: the box is yours, it carries your cargo on your bill of lading, and there is no per-unit rental clock running against you. Guide 10 covers what SOC ownership changes in practice.
If the unit stays where it is, for storage, conversion or domestic transport, it has to be imported into the country it is standing in. Customs formalities are not part of the sale, so your forwarder or customs agent files the declaration and settles any VAT and duty due. Budget for that separately; it is not in the listed price and no quotation from us will pretend it is.
The customs position is not uniform across the list. The depot network covers Europe rather than the EU alone, so units collected in the United Kingdom, Switzerland or Georgia sit outside the EU customs union. That matters to anyone planning to move the unit across one of those borders afterwards, and it is worth settling with a customs agent before you buy rather than after.
Release runs on cleared funds. You receive an invoice from Silknet Hong Kong Limited, you pay to a corporate account, and the depot releases against the cleared payment. As with any container purchase, check that the beneficiary name matches the company on your paperwork before you send anything, and confirm any change of bank instructions by phone with a contact you already have.
The release names a collection point and a window. For a depot unit that is the depot itself, usually by appointment, and depot units can be inspected before release. For a gate-buy unit it is the terminal gate on the vessel arrival date, and you receive the unit numbers and the vessel details in advance instead of an inspection slot.
Every unit on the list is new-build one-trip and individually CSC-plated, so the plate and the serial are on your paperwork whichever state you buy from. Guide 09 explains what that plate certifies and how to read it.
Collection is yours by default. Units release for self-collection by your own trucks at the named port or inland depot, which is the cheapest route if you already have haulage.
Where you would rather we arranged it, haulage to your site is quoted as its own line on the quotation rather than folded into the unit price, so you can put it next to your own carrier's number and pick. Nothing about the container price changes either way.
Plan the ground at your end before the truck leaves. A 40ft unit needs a straight approach and room for a tilt-bed or a crane, and that is a much cheaper problem to discover on a site plan than on the day.
The list uses the trade's shorthand, and it is worth ten minutes. 20GP and 40GP are standard-height general purpose units at 8'6". 20HQ and 40HQ are high cubes at 9'6", and 40HQ is the same box the market also writes as 40HC.
DD is a double door, with doors at both ends rather than one. OS, 4door and FOS are the open-side family: side doors, four separate side doors, and a full open side. Grain is a grain door, a hatch in the door for bulk loading. Duocon is two 10FT units coupled to occupy one 20FT slot. RF and RH are refrigerated units, standard and high cube, and the machinery make is stated on the line.
Colours are RAL codes as painted at the factory: RAL 7016 anthracite grey, RAL 6007 bottle green, RAL 5010 gentian blue, RAL 1015 light ivory. Repainting to your own colour is a factory-order option rather than a depot one. Fittings are spelled out on each line: forklift pockets, a lock box over the padlock position, and the number of door locking bars. The full glossary is in the terminology guide.
Depot stock wins on time and on freight. The unit is already in your region, so nothing has to cross an ocean and nothing waits for a production month. For standard sizes needed soon, it is usually the more economical route and we will say so on the quotation.
A factory order wins on specification. Your own colour, your logo on the line, a defined batch built to one spec, and door configurations that depots simply do not accumulate. It runs on a production calendar and arrives on a first trip, so it is a plan rather than a purchase you complete this week.
The two are not in competition on a single quotation. Tell us the size, the quantity and the date, and the answer names the source that fits, whether that is a European depot, the US depot stock or a factory batch.