Guides / Cost and Ordering

How to Quote Hardwood Lumber for Export: FOB, CIF, Board Feet and Cubic Meters

February 14, 2027

An export price quote for hardwood lumber is a short contract offer, and it only works when the buyer can compare it with another mill’s offer line by line. That means it names the product exactly, the unit of measure, whether the footage is counted net or gross, the Incoterms rule with a named place, the volume per shipment, the currency, how long the price stands and the payment terms. This guide is for mills, yards and exporters. It covers what to put in a quote, how FOB, FCA and CIF differ, the board foot and cubic meter arithmetic, and a worked container example with made-up prices.

This is general information as of October 2026, not legal or shipping advice. Confirm freight, insurance and customs details with your forwarder and broker. The Incoterms rules are published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). I could not open the full rule text, so the points below come from ICC pages and explainers, and the USDA handbook I used dates from 2002.

What a quote has to say

Buyers who compare quotes mostly find that one mill left something out. Put these in every quote:

Line	Example wording	Why it matters
Product	Red oak, 4/4 rough, kiln dried, NHLA No.1 Common and better	Species, thickness, surfacing, drying and grade rule decide the price
Measure	Board feet, net after drying	Gross and net differ by about 7% (AHEC)
Unit price	Price per MBF, or per cubic meter	Name the unit next to every number
Incoterms rule	FCA Mill Yard, or FOB Port Name	A named place, not just “FOB”
Volume	One 40 ft container, about 11,000 BF	Price often depends on the load size
Packing	Strapped bundles, wrapped, tally per bundle	Affects cost and how the load arrives
Currency and payment	USD, deposit and balance terms	See our guide to payment terms for lumber imports
Shipping window	Ready to load within a stated number of weeks of the deposit	Lets the buyer plan
Validity	Price holds until a stated date	Lumber and freight both move

The USDA’s export handbook says quotes should include shipping arrangements and dates, payment terms and total weights or volumes, with metric units for foreign buyers. It also says a quote that reflects the cost of goods delivered to the importer’s yard has a better chance of being accepted than one that stops at the US port. In other words, a buyer abroad usually wants a CIF or similar price they can compare with local lumber, not a mill-gate figure.

Units: MBF at home, cubic meters abroad

In the United States lumber is bought and sold by the thousand board feet (MBF). The same handbook notes that foreign trade commonly uses cubic meters, square meters and metric tons, and tells exporters to be fluent in converting between them.

The Nebraska Forest Service reprints hardwood price tables from the Hardwood Market Report and prints the basis in a note. Those prices are in dollars per MBF, average market prices FOB mill, for truckload or larger quantities of 4/4 rough, green lumber in random widths and lengths graded to NHLA rules. The kiln dried table is a different basis again: an estimate of predominant prices for 4/4 lumber measured after kiln drying. This tells you two things. A domestic quote is already tied to a thickness, a drying state and a measuring point, and a buyer who sees “FOB” in your export quote may read it as the Incoterms rule, so write the place in full.

AHEC’s measurement page gives the conversions you need:

• Board feet = width (in) x length (ft) x thickness (in) / 12.
• 1 MBF = 2.36 m3, and 1 m3 = 424 board feet.
• Net tally is counted after kiln drying. A gross or green tally is counted before drying, and the buyer can expect about 7% fewer board feet than a gross figure.
• Rough kiln dried boards from 3/8 in to 1 3/4 in thick may be 1/16 in scant, and boards 2 in and thicker 1/8 in scant.

Our guides on board feet and hardwood pricing and on writing a tally sheet cover the counting rules. The quote must use the same rules as the tally that will follow it.

Converting a price

To turn a price per MBF into a price per cubic meter, multiply by 0.424. To go the other way, divide by 0.424.

• $1,200 per MBF x 0.424 = $508.80 per m3.
• $508.80 per m3 / 0.424 = $1,200 per MBF.

AHEC’s own figures are rounded, so 2.36 m3 per MBF and 424 BF per m3 differ slightly (1,000 / 424 = 2.358). Pick one, state it in the quote and keep it for the whole shipment so the invoice and the tally agree.

Net or gross

If a price is per gross (green) board foot and the buyer wants it net, divide by 0.93 rather than multiplying by 1.07. A made-up $1,100 per gross MBF becomes $1,100 / 0.93 = $1,183 per net MBF. If you drop the gross figure into a net quote by mistake, the buyer will see a price that looks about 7% better than it is, and the dispute comes later with the tally.

FOB, FCA and CIF in plain terms

The ICC’s Incoterms 2020 rules are eleven three-letter terms. FOB, CFR and CIF are for sea and inland waterway transport only, and FCA is one of the rules for any mode of transport.

Rule	Where the seller’s job ends	Seller pays	Buyer pays
FCA, named place	Goods handed to the buyer’s carrier at the named place, for example the mill yard or a container terminal	Export clearance, loading at seller’s premises if that is the named place	Main carriage, insurance, import clearance and costs
FOB, named port of shipment	Goods loaded on board the buyer’s nominated vessel at the port	Export clearance, delivery on board	Ocean freight, insurance, destination charges, import clearance
CIF, named port of destination	Goods loaded on board at the port of shipment, risk passes there	Freight to the destination port, minimum insurance	Import clearance, duties and taxes, other costs after the carriage

Three points from the ICC pages are worth knowing before you quote:

1. Containers and FOB. ICC says FCA is the fitting rule for goods moved in containers or on pallets by more than one mode of transport, and that FOB is only for maritime or inland waterway transport. A hardwood load that goes by truck to a terminal and then in a container to a ship is the FCA case. If the buyer still asks for FOB and you agree, put the exact port in the quote and ask your forwarder what happens to your risk between the terminal gate and the vessel.
2. CIF risk. Under CIF the seller pays freight and insurance to the destination port, but risk of loss or damage passes to the buyer when the goods are on board at the port of shipment. A CIF price does not mean you carry the risk to the buyer’s yard.
3. CIF insurance is minimum cover. ICC’s CIF explainer says the seller may buy limited cover under Institute Cargo Clauses (C) or similar, and ICC’s Incoterms page calls (C) the default level. Kiln dried hardwood in a box is a cargo where the buyer may want broader cover, which is a point to agree in writing.

The USDA handbook also shows why a destination-based price attracts buyers: it lists which party pays each charge for each term from ex works to delivered duty paid. It was written under the 2000 version of the rules and uses terms that Incoterms 2020 dropped, so use the current ICC text for the terms and the handbook only for the idea.

Always write the quote as “[Rule] [named place] Incoterms 2020”. “FOB” alone leaves the buyer to guess whether the port, the terminal or your yard is meant.

A worked container quote

Every number here is made up to show the steps, not a market price.

The order. One container of 4/4 rough, kiln dried red oak, No.1 Common and better, about 11,000 BF net, strapped bundles.

1. Check the load. The USDA handbook says a freight container holds roughly 10,000 to 14,000 board feet of lumber depending on product and moisture content, and that carriers limit cargo weight (about 46,000 lb for a 40 ft container on US highways). So 11,000 BF is inside the range, but only your forwarder and trucker can confirm the weight on your route.
2. Convert the volume. 11,000 BF / 424 = 25.94 m3.
3. Price the lumber. $1,200 per net MBF x 11 = $13,200. In metric: 25.94 m3 x $508.80 = $13,200.
4. Add the terms. FCA mill yard: $13,200, with trucking and everything after it for the buyer. FOB port: $13,200 plus your trucking, port handling and export clearance. CIF destination port: the FOB figure plus ocean freight and insurance, which you get from your forwarder’s written quote on the day.

Show the three numbers (price per MBF, price per m3, total) on the quote even if the buyer asked for only one. They catch each other’s mistakes.

Habits that keep a quote clean

• Quote one basis per line. Do not mix net lines and gross lines, or rough and surfaced lines, in one total.
• Set a validity date. Freight rates and lumber prices both move, so say how long the number stands.
• Match the quote to the documents. The USDA handbook lists common letter of credit discrepancies that can lead to nonpayment, among them documents that disagree with each other and an invoice description that differs from the credit. If you sell on a letter of credit, copy the species, grade and unit wording from the quote into the invoice and tally exactly.
• Name the paperwork. If the buyer will need papers for the destination, such as plant health or legal timber documents, say which you can issue. Our guides to phytosanitary rules and to the EU deforestation rules show what buyers ask for. A phytosanitary certificate is not a statement of grade or quality, as the handbook points out.
• Keep the tally and the quote on the same counting rules. See our guide to container loading and tally for how the load is counted.
• Publish your basis before the request. A mill that states its tally basis, grade rule and loading point on its page gets fewer clarifying emails. We cover that in our guide on what to publish for export buyers.

For the buyer’s side of this quote, see wholesale hardwood lumber.

Next step

If you sell hardwood lumber for export and want requests from buyers whose species, grade and thickness fit your stock, register your mill or yard. Tell us the species, grades, drying, tally basis and the Incoterms rules you quote. We pass a buyer’s spec to you only when it fits. Each request goes to 3 suppliers at most and the buyer deals with you directly. We reply within 24 business hours, and we make no promise of orders.

Sources

• AHEC, board feet, tally and kiln dried measurement
• USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, A Guide to Exporting Solid Wood Products, Agricultural Handbook 662 (revised January 2002)
• ICC, Incoterms 2020
• ICC Academy, FCA or FOB under Incoterms 2020
• ICC Academy, CFR or CIF under Incoterms 2020
• Nebraska Forest Service, Timber Talk (reprint of Hardwood Market Report price table notes)

Frequently asked questions

Keep reading

• Hardwood Lumber Market in 2027: What Supply, Demand and Policy Mean for a Buying Plan
• US Hardwood Lumber Exports by Market: 2025 Results, First Half of 2026 and Where the Volume Goes