China plays an important role in International trade. It’s considered world’s largest exporter, boasting of efficient manufacturing sector capable of producing a wide range of goods at affordable prices. The country’s advanced infrastructure, extensive ports, and shipping lines, ensures timely and cost-effective transportation, which is crucial for meeting international demand.
Why Ship from China
Shipping from China allows businesses to leverage the benefits of competitive pricing, high-quality options, and efficient logistics. For many importers, sourcing from China remains an essential strategy to offer value-driven products that meet quality expectations at an affordable price.
1. Wide range of product categories
Being a global leader in manufacturing, China has the capability to produce a wide range of products. From electronics to clothing and household goods, Chinese manufacturers offer a wide range of product categories making it easier for businesses looking for a variety of products
2. Cost effectiveness for products
With lower labor and production cost as compared to other countries, Chinese goods are significantly cheaper. Most businesses all over the world prefer to ship goods from China to maintain healthy profit margins
3. High quality products
While there have been concerns about the quality of products from China in the past, Chinese manufacturers have come up with stringent quality control measures and technological advancements. This has resulted to products meeting international standards, maintaining high quality across different categories.
4. Streamlined Logistics and Supply Chain Infrastructure
With an extensive shipping network and ports, shipping from China is relatively straightforward and reliable. Additionally, China has solid trade relationships with countries around the world and is part of international trade agreements that help simplify the logistics process and reduce potential barriers.
Methods for shipping from China
When choosing the method to ship from China, there are factors to consider such as; shipping budget, delivery time, fragility of the goods, and product weight and dimensions. Let’s look at the available shipping methods;
Sea freight shipping from China
This is the most common method used to ship goods from China. Sea freight is best suitable for large shipments and bulk items. Depending with the nature of your shipment, you can choose between container shipping and Ro-Ro shipping.
Container shipping from China
Container shipping is a form of transport where goods are loaded in standardized container and transported overseas. The most commonly used container sizes are 20ft and 40ft shipping containers. There are two options for container shipping from China, namely;
- Full Container Load (FCL; FCL is suitable for large volume of goods. The shipper has an exclusive use of an entire container, which ensures better security and faster loading/unloading times at ports.
- Less than Container Load (LCL); This method is ideal for smaller shipments. It allows shippers to share container space with others, making it a cost-effective method as you only pay for the space your goods occupy.
Roro shipping
Roro shipping is a method used to ship heavy equipments, oversized cargo, construction equipments, and cars. It’s suitable for those shipments that cannot fit in a standard container. The goods are rolled on into the shipping vessel, and rolled of at the destination port. It involves less handling, making it a cheaper option as compared to container shipping.
Air freight shipping from China
Air freight shipping is suitable for high-value, time-sensitive, or low-volume shipments. It is more expensive than sea freight, making it ideal for products with a high value-to-weight ratio, such as electronics or luxury items. This method offers the fastest transit times as compared to other international shipping from China methods. The cost of shipping via air varies, depending on weight and volume.
Express shipping
Express shipping offers door-to-door delivery with the shortest transit times. It is often used for sample shipments or high-priority orders. This kind of shipping is normally via couriers such as DHL, UPS, FedEx, etc. It is the most expensive option, with rates often calculated by volumetric weight. However, it includes customs clearance and last-mile delivery, making it a convenient all-in-one solution.
Rail freight
This method is limited to certain destinations, primarily in Europe. It’s more affordable than air freight and faster than sea freight, making it a good option for those shipping from China to Europe.
Cost of container shipping from China to USA
On average, shipping from China to USA costs between $1200-$2500 for a 20ft container, and $2500-$4000 for a 40ft shipping container. Note that these are just estimates. For an exact quote, contact your shipping provider.
Factors that may influence the shipping costs are;
- Distance between the origin and destination port
- Shipping method used
- Customs
- fuel prices
- Weight and size of the cargo
Popular shipping ports in China
China is home to some of the most busiest ports in the world. The most popular ports are;
1. Port of Shanghai:
The port of Shanghai is the largest sea port in the world. It overtook the Port of Singapore to become the world’s busiest container port in 2010. The port is operated by the Shanghai International Port (Group). The port is linked with the Yangtse River, reaching into multiple provinces of China. Thanks to the extensive access to Chinese seas and the oceans of the world, the port has become an important transport hub. It is undoubtedly one of the most important Chinese gateways for foreign trade.
2. Port of Shenzhen
The port of Shenzhen is home to 40 shipping companies who have launched around 130 international container routes. There are 560 ships on call at Shenzhen port on a monthly basis. It is currently the third largest port in China and one of the busiest container ports in the world, seeing traffic of 30,036,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2022. It was formerly the second largest port in China; however, it fell behind the Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan and has not recovered its position since.
3. Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan
The port of Ningbo-Zhoushan is the busiest port in the world, in terms of cargo tonnage. As of 2025, it handled 888.96 million tons of cargo. The Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan is involved in economic trade with cargo shipment, raw materials and manufactured goods from as far as North and South America and Oceania. It has economic trade with over 560 ports from more than 90 countries and regions in the world.
4. Port of Guangzhou
The Port of Guangzhou is operated by Guangzhou Port Group Co. Ltd which is a state owned company. It is currently the largest port in South China, with its international maritime trade reaching over 300 ports in more than 80 countries and districts worldwide. The port incorporates the former Huangpu Port.
5. Qingdao Port
Located in Qingdao city near China’s Yellow Sea, it is one of the ten busiest ports in the world (7th in 2019, considering total cargo volume). As of 2019, the container traffic at Qingdao port was 21 million TEUs. It is connected to over 700 ports in the world.
6. Port of Tianjin
Located in Northern China, the Port of Tianjin is the main maritime gateway to the capital city of China, Beijing. It is the largest port in Northern China, handling about 17.2 million container traffic as of 2019. The port is operated by Tianjin Transportation and Port Authority.
7. Port of Dalian
The Port of Dalian is known as ice-free port. The port is managed by Dalian Port Corporation ltd. which is a state-owned firm. It has successfully operated the container traffic of 8.7 million TEUs in 2019. There are about 80 modern production berths, out of which 38 berths are deep water berths suitable for vessels of more than 10,000 tonnes deadweight. It is majorly dependent on heavy industries like coal.
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8. Port of Xiamen
This port is located on Xiamen Island, near Jiulongjiang river. The port handled 8.08 million TEUs of containers and about 191 million tons of cargo in 2013. In 2019, it was able to increase its container traffic operation to 11.1 million TEUs. It is almost connected to all major ports in the world by 68 shipping routes of over 50 countries. It has the potential to take calls of an average of 469 ships each month.
9. Port of Yingkou
Located in Yingkou, Liaoning, this Port is also the second-largest port in northeast China and serves as a major import facility for parts of Mongolia and northeastern China. The port has 78 berths and activities include shipping of oil tar, steel, timber, sugar, and much more.
10. Port of Hong Kong
This port is operated by the Marine Department under the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. As of 2019, the transportation operated by the port is 18.4 million TEUs. The port consists of five major terminals, and handles about 456,000 vessels per year.
Impacts of COVID-19 on transportation personnel
Port operations were hampered by high COVID-19 infection rates among port workers, which reduced the amount of cargo that could be moved to and from ships. As a result, ports became bottlenecks, with shipping container backlogs delaying cargo loading and offloading. Port production may have been harmed as a result of updated health policies and working conditions.
Additionally, labor shortages had an impact on global supply networks. Onshore transportation systems (such as rail and trucks), for example, encountered labor shortages, which caused delays in the delivery of goods and increased expenses.
The COVID-19 epidemic slowed the flow of products even more by prohibiting international travel for marine workers and raising the expense of maritime staff. Many governments enforced travel restrictions and specific quarantine measures as the COVID-19 epidemic grew into a global pandemic, limiting labor mobility in the maritime sector.
According to the International Labour Organization, 800,000 sailors will be unable to board or disembark from their ships by 2020. This difficulty began to fade in May 2020, when some governments permitted companies to charter planes in pre-approved “safe transit corridors,” allowing seafarers to travel from their home countries to specific ports, relieving other seafarers.
These and other factors drove up labor costs, including hardship pay to compensate personnel trapped on ships, as well as greater repositioning travel costs. Shipping from China to the USA