Delivery terms decide who pays for freight, who carries the risk, and who deals with customs. Buyers who ask for the wrong one either overpay or find themselves responsible for a container sitting at a port they have never visited. Here is what each term means in practice when you are buying machinery from Türkiye.
The three terms that actually matter
EXW — Ex Works
The price covers the goods standing in the factory. Everything after that is yours: loading, inland transport to the port, Turkish export clearance, freight, insurance, import clearance, delivery. EXW gives the lowest number on the quotation and the most work for you.
Ask for EXW when you already have a freight forwarder in Türkiye, or you are consolidating goods from several Turkish suppliers into one container. Otherwise it is a false economy — the costs do not disappear, they move off the quotation and onto your desk.
FOB — Free On Board
The supplier delivers the goods on board the vessel at a named Turkish port, usually Mersin, Istanbul or Izmir, and handles Turkish export clearance. From the moment the goods are on board, freight, insurance and import are yours.
FOB is the standard for container shipments and the term most experienced importers ask for. You control the shipping line, you see the real freight cost, and the supplier's responsibility ends at a clearly defined point. Note that FOB is written for sea freight; for a truck to Europe it is the wrong term.
CIF — Cost, Insurance and Freight
The supplier arranges and pays sea freight to your destination port and takes out minimum insurance cover. You handle import clearance, duties and delivery from the port onwards.
Ask for CIF when you are buying from Türkiye for the first time, or you do not have a forwarder you trust. It gives you one number to compare and one party to chase. The trade-off is that you cannot see what the freight actually cost.
Two more you will meet
- CFR — the same as CIF without the insurance. Sensible if you have your own marine cargo policy.
- DAP, Delivered At Place. The supplier delivers to your address; you still clear the goods through customs and pay the duty. For road shipments from Türkiye into the EU this is often the cleanest term, because the truck goes door to door anyway.
Avoid DDP for anything but small consignments. It requires the supplier to pay your import duties and act as importer of record in your country, which most Turkish manufacturers cannot do properly — and a DDP price usually hides a generous margin for the risk.
Which to ask for
A short rule that holds up in practice:
- Shipping to Europe by truck: ask for DAP, and make sure the A.TR certificate is included. Under the customs union, industrial goods from Türkiye enter the EU free of import duty when accompanied by an A.TR.
- Shipping to the Gulf, Africa or Asia by sea, first order: ask for CIF to your port.
- Same route, once you have a forwarder: move to FOB and book your own freight. On a full container this usually saves real money.
- Buying from several Turkish suppliers at once: EXW and consolidate.
Always name the place
An Incoterm without a named place is meaningless. "CIF" tells nobody anything; "CIF Jebel Ali, Incoterms 2020" is a contract term. Write the port or address and the rules version into the proforma invoice. The current version is Incoterms 2020, published by the International Chamber of Commerce.
What is not included, whatever the term
No Incoterm covers import duty and VAT in your country, port storage if you clear late, or inland transport beyond the named place. Budget for these separately. On industrial machinery they are frequently larger than the freight itself.
Getting a comparable quotation
When you request a quote, state the term and the place you want, for example "CIF Lagos" or "DAP Rotterdam". You will get a price you can actually compare against another supplier's, instead of three quotations that each include something different.