Buyers routinely overpay by shipping half-empty containers, or lose weeks consolidating a load that should have gone full. The break-even is more predictable than most people assume.
The trade-off
A full container load is priced per box, so the cost per unit falls as you fill it. A less-than-container load is priced per cubic metre with a handling premium, and it waits for other cargo before it sails.
The question is never which is cheaper in the abstract. It is whether your volume, and your tolerance for a slower transit, put you past the break-even.
Where the line sits
As a working rule across the lanes we run:
Under 8 cubic metres
Consolidate. The per-CBM premium is still cheaper than paying for air you are not using, and consolidation windows on the main Asia–Africa lanes are short.
8 to 15 cubic metres
The grey zone. Compare landed cost both ways, and weigh the two-to-three week consolidation delay against your stock cover.
Above 15 cubic metres
Book the box. A 20-foot container holds roughly 28 CBM usable; past 15 you are close enough that FCL usually wins on both cost and transit time.
Consolidation as a strategy
Where several of our buyers source from the same region, we consolidate their orders into shared containers — each pays LCL volume but the load moves on an FCL schedule. It is the single most effective lever we have on landed cost for mid-volume importers.