A wholesaler in Melbourne bought his first polycarbonate sheet wholesale container on price per sheet and discovered at arrival that the two thicknesses he actually sold were stacked at the bottom, under four hundred kilos of 10 mm he would move in a year. The container was cheap. The inventory was not.
Loading polycarbonate sheet wholesale without losing money
Polycarbonate is light and bulky, so a container fills by volume long before it reaches a weight limit. A 20-foot box gives about 28 cubic metres of usable space; at 6 mm that is roughly 120 sheets of 2050 x 3050 mm before crates, and about 108 after.
Anyone quoting a container by tonnage is quoting a different product. Ask for the stack height, the crate count and the loading diagram.
Loading a mixed order without losing money
- Put the fastest-moving thickness at the door end, not the floor
- Stack thin sheets flat on pallets, never vertical
- Keep crates under about 1.1 m so a forklift can see over them
- Interleave with 0.05 mm film every sheet in a crate that will travel by sea
- Never place a crate directly against a container wall without dunnage
The door-end rule is the one that saves real money. A container is unloaded from the back, and whatever sits there is handled twice less often than what sits at the front.
Packing specification that survives the sea
Polycarbonate scratches easily and a scratched panel is scrap. Film on both faces, interleaving between sheets, edge protection on the crate, and a moisture barrier in humid routes. Unprotected sheet arriving with a haze of transit marks is a quality claim, and it is usually excluded from the price comparison.
Ask for the packing specification in writing, then photograph the loaded container before the doors close. That photograph is the only evidence that settles a damage claim. The export packing note lists the crate details worth specifying.
Payment, inspection and the retention
Thirty per cent deposit and seventy on the bill of lading is the market norm. What matters more is the inspection clause: a right to reject at arrival, measured against a thickness map and a visual standard agreed before production.
A five per cent retention against the second delivery is often worth more than a one per cent discount on the deposit. It keeps the final shipment honest.
Arrival checks that decide the verdict
Measure nine points on three sheets from each crate. Weigh one sheet per crate and compare against the theoretical weight. Check the UV face marking if the sheet is co-extruded. Photograph any defect before the film is removed, because once the protective film is off, the claim becomes a conversation.
Do those four checks within forty-eight hours of arrival. After that, the evidence is gone and the argument is about memory.
When wholesale is the wrong shape
If the business turns four thicknesses in small volumes, a container of one grade is a warehouse problem disguised as a discount. Buy pallets from a stockholder, pay more per sheet, and keep the cash.
Wholesale works when a business has predictable throughput and space to hold six months of one thickness. Everyone else is buying inventory, not sheet. The document side of the first container is covered in the polycarbonate import guide.
Send your annual thickness mix and target landed cost to oversales@rpplexiglass.com; we will model the container before you commit to a deposit.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much polycarbonate fits in a 20-foot container?
By volume, roughly 28 cubic metres usable, which is about 120 sheets of 6 mm at 2050 x 3050 mm before crates. In practice crates and interleaving reduce that by 8 to 12 per cent.
Is wholesale always cheaper per sheet?
Per sheet, usually. Per delivered square metre, only when the mix fills the container efficiently. A container filled two thirds with one thickness often lands at a higher unit cost than a mixed pallet order.
What payment terms are normal?
Thirty per cent deposit with seventy on the bill of lading is common. Arrival inspection clauses and a retention against the final delivery are worth more than a small discount on the deposit.