China ocean freight transit times by route

Quick answer: port-to-port runs 15–20 days to the US West Coast and 28–35 days to the East Coast; clearance normally adds 1–2 working days at export and 1–3 at import. Book two to three weeks ahead in normal periods, three to four before Chinese New Year.

Port-to-port vs door-to-door

When a forwarder quotes 15–20 days, that is usually port-to-port: the time the vessel takes from the Chinese loading port to the destination port. Your real timeline is longer. Before sailing, the container must be picked up, stuffed and cleared for export, and the booking must meet the carrier's CY cutoff. After arrival, the container needs import clearance, terminal release and inland delivery before the goods reach your warehouse.

So a 15–20 day port-to-port service to the US West Coast is typically 22–30 days door-to-door once clearance and trucking are added. Always ask which of the two a schedule refers to — that single question avoids most transit-time disputes.

Reference transit times by route

The reference times below are port-to-port, vary by carrier and season, and are confirmed with every quote:

Route	Typical transit time
China → US West Coast	15–20 days
China → US East Coast	28–35 days
China → Canada West	15–20 days
China → Canada East	30–35 days
China → Mexico Pacific	20–28 days
China → Mexico Gulf	30–38 days
China → Guyana (via transhipment)	40–55 days
China → Argentina	35–45 days
China → North Europe	30–38 days
China → West Africa	35–45 days
China → South/East Africa	25–35 days
China → Southeast Asia	7–15 days
China → Australia	20–28 days

Use them for planning, not as a promise: the confirmed sailing in your quote is what counts.

Worked example — a 40HC from Yantian to Los Angeles, ready the first week after Golden Week:

The window arithmetic comes straight from the table above — it is a planning example, not a schedule. The confirmed sailing in your quote is what governs.

What adds time to the schedule

• Peak-season space crunch. When demand outstrips capacity, carriers raise rates and sometimes roll cargo to the next sailing.
• Transhipment connections. Every transfer adds a missed-connection risk; routes via Singapore, Busan or Panama can add a week.
• Customs exams. A random or targeted exam at either end can hold a container for days.
• Port congestion. Waiting at anchorage outside a congested hub adds time with no change to the published schedule.
• Chinese New Year and Golden Week. Factories pause, pre-holiday cargo floods the vessels, and sailings book out weeks ahead. The 1–7 October 2026 Golden Week is the live case: factories resume around 8–12 October and full capacity typically takes another 1–2 weeks. The next one is Chinese New Year on 6 February 2027, when closures commonly stretch to 2–4 weeks.

None of these are excuses, but they are reality: build buffer time into your delivery commitments instead of promising the pure transit number.

When the route itself changes

Two canal systems sit underneath most of the routings in the table above, and either can move a schedule without anything changing on your side.

Panama Canal. Capacity is coming back. In late September 2026 the Panama Canal Authority announced that from 15 October the Neopanamax locks move to 10 daily booking slots — 33 across both lock systems — and maximum draft improves to 14.94 m (49.0 ft). That reverses the September cuts (nine slots, 14.63 m) that had followed reduced rainfall in the watershed. For cargo this shows up on the US East Coast and Gulf services — the 28–35 day transits in the table above — where booking space loosens as slots recover. The Authority keeps the figures provisional, so treat any Panama number as a planning figure rather than a fixed one.

Suez and the Red Sea. The Suez Canal itself has not closed — the Suez Canal Authority stated on 13 January 2026 that navigation was proceeding normally in both directions. What changed is carrier routing, and it is going one way for now: MSC resumed Suez transits on 16 August 2026, the Maersk/Hapag-Lloyd AE15/SE3 returned to the full Suez routing on 6 July, and in mid-September the two carriers announced that four Gemini alliance services return to the Red Sea from October 2026, with Hapag-Lloyd calling the route the more efficient option. August 2026 transits through the canal ran about 27% above the previous year. That is what the 30–38 day North Europe figures above reflect — and it is worth asking which routing your booked service is actually on: a Cape of Good Hope diversion adds roughly 7–10 days of ocean time and can be reinstated at short notice.

Both of these are stated as of early October 2026, and neither is settled — the Panama figures are explicitly provisional and Red Sea risk has shifted more than once in two years. When a sailing depends on either, ask for the routing at booking rather than assuming it from the port pair.

When ocean is too slow

When the deadline cannot move, air freight is the answer: typically 1–5 days door-to-door including clearance, at a cost per kilogram far above ocean. A hybrid plan often works best — air the urgent first batch, ocean the bulk, and keep the project on schedule without paying air rates twice. Air freight also suits samples, spare parts and product launches where the selling season will not wait.

We book both. Send us the volume, weight and deadline, and we will price air and FCL side by side so you can decide with numbers instead of guesswork. For smaller ocean volumes, our FCL vs LCL guide explains when a shared container is the smarter middle ground.

How to plan a shipment

• Book 2–3 weeks ahead in peak season. Space on popular sailings disappears early; late bookings pay peak rates or get rolled.
• The factory-ready date is the real clock. Transit time starts when the container is stuffed, not when the PO is signed. Confirm the ready date before booking a sailing.
• Respect the CY cutoff. Every sailing has a container yard cutoff, usually 1–3 days before departure. Miss it and the container rolls to the next vessel — a full week on some routes.

Share your factory-ready date and destination with us and we will propose a sailing that fits, with the cutoffs spelled out in writing. See Australia or the FAQ for route-specific notes.