Mike: Good morning, Ms. Jones. I’ve bought 2000 cartons of iron toys from Dalian. Is it possible for you to make direct shipment of the goods to Hamburg in September?

Jones: I’m afraid not. There’s only one direct liner from Dalian to Europe every two months. The next chance is a London-bound cargo ship in November.

Mike: But we are in urgent need of the toys, because we are going to put them onto the market before Christmas.

Jones: I see. Would you agree if we make transshipment in Hong Kong? As far as I know, Jardine Shipping Agency has a liner sailing from Hong Kong to Europe around the end of September. We can send the toys to Hong Kong first.

Mike: But it’s difficult for us to accept a designated on-carrier. Unexpected factors might make the goods miss the intended sailing.

Jones: How about multimodal combined transport by rail and sea? The goods can be carried first by rail from Dalian to Tianjin and then from Tianjin to Hamburg by sea.

Mike: The combined transport may cause a delay in shipment or even lose the goods completely. Besides, the formalities are too complicated.

Jones: You see, the conditions for shipping goods to European countries have changed a lot in the last few years. We have transshipped European-bound cargoes from rail to ship at Tianjin without trouble. As to formalities, we will handle them at our end.

Mike: Well, in that case, we have to pay extra transportation charges.

Jones: I am sorry, but please do.

Mike: Ok, I understand, thank you.