What is FOB (FOB Colombo) ?

[Neo]

Lot of people are very confused with the term FOB. This is one of the most used terms in the exports industry. FOB is an abbreviation for "Free on Board". But it is usually used with a Port name.
Ex: "FOB Colombo, Sri Lanka", "FOB Rotterdam, The Netherlands"

Think that you are sending some items from Sri Lanka to The Netherlands. Your items will be loaded to a ship at Colombo harbour and will be unloaded at Rotterdam harbour. When you specify the price to your customer, if you say your price is FOB Colombo, US$1000. This means the customer needs to pay for shipping and all the other expenses such as custom duty when he clears it in Rotterdam, etc... However if you specify the price as FOB Rotterdam, that means your price includes shipping as well but customer needs to pay other charges such as custom duty, clearing charges, etc... at Rotterdam harbour.

In case of the port name is not used and the price is stated as FOB US$ 1000, that means it is the price without any shipping costs.

I hope this little guideline will avoid confusion.

Have a look at CIF here.
https://robot.lk/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3517