DHL Is Not Shipping e-cigarettes

On Monday August 11, 2014 the international shipping carrier DHL declared it will not be shipping certain e-cigarette related products from China. This information comes after a fire broke out in one of the warehouses located in China. According to several e-cigarette suppliers located in Shenzhen, the alleged source of the fire was a battery that exploded from within a package. Where in the warehouse and what stage of shipping the package was in is not clear.

After several google searches regarding the matter, the only relevant information is a forum thread that dates back to April 2013. The forum discussion titled DHL stopped the delivery of E-Liquids! (with Nicotine) started by a user from Japan whom (as the title suggests) was having an issue with DHL ceasing to deliver e-liquids containing nicotine from China. After reading all of the responses to the post, I found there has been no concrete answer to why that was happening just speculation of the governments trying to syphon more money from the e-cigarette industry. DHL has yet to release any information pertaining to shipping e-liquids or ecig devices.

Still with no real answer to what is going on, the only option remaining was to contact DHL directly. So I picked up the phone, called customer service and after about 10 minutes I finally got my answer. At first the DHL rep (who is also a vape user by the way) had no idea what I was talking about, she then put me on hold for a couple of minutes and returned to tell me that DHL will no longer ship any electronic cigarettes that contain batteries as well as any e-liquid from China. The rep used the word “combustable” to explain why they placed the restriction, however items like atomizers, coils, drip tips and anything else without a battery are still acceptable. Below is the audio clip from my conversation with the DHL representative.

What does this mean for the e-cigarette industry?

For the time being this adds to the list of obstacles that e-cigarette retailers are currently facing in the United States and probably around the world. In a county that is “made in china” it is immediately apparent that this will affect pricing now that more expensive carriers like UPS will be handling the load. Also if the competition for authority in the vape / ecig industry wasn’t tough enough now it will be cut throat as customers will gravitate to companies who maintain a consistent stock as opposed to sellers that are merely cheap. My guess is that this stint with DHL will not last long and just like eBay and several other companies, they will loosen up once they notice the impact it has on their revenue.