1.the CBM math that sets your landed cost

One of the first numbers a serious buyer asks for is "how many fit in a 40HQ?" It is the right question,

because for chairs the loading plan moves your landed cost more than a few cents on the FOB price ever

will. The honest answer starts with a caveat: it is never the theoretical maximum.

2.The volume you actually have

A 40-foot high-cube container gives you somewhere around 67–76 CBM of usable internal volume.

Chairs are light and bulky, so you almost always cube out — you fill the space before you get anywhere

near the weight limit. That single fact drives everything else: with chairs, you are buying air unless you

pack smart.

3.Assembled vs knock-down

This is the lever. A fully assembled office chair with the base and gas lift attached is mostly empty space

under the seat, and you might load 250–350 of them in a 40HQ depending on model. The same chair

shipped knock-down — backrest, seat, base, arms and cylinder flat-packed — can roughly double that

count, because the cartons stack into clean rectangles instead of nesting awkward shapes.

4.How we plan a load

When we quote a chair program, we send a loading plan, not just a unit price: cartons per container,

CBM per carton, and the count for both assembled and knock-down so you can compare landed cost

yourself. If you are mixing models — say task chairs with a few reception sofas — we plan the stack so

the bulky items do not waste a layer.

One caution from experience: do not let a supplier quote you the absolute maximum carton count. That

number assumes a perfect load with no dunnage and no door-end gap, and real containers do not load

that way. We quote a realistic figure and would rather under-promise the count than have you short on

a reorder. The mesh vs foam choice also feeds into this — lighter mesh chairs sometimes squeeze in a

few more before you cube out.

Please let us know your model and quantity, and we will prepare a complete 40HQ loading plan for you.

You can reach us through our contact page or by emailing rj3@chinarenjie.com.