Wholesale FCL Trade Lanes from China
Six dedicated route guides covering the container corridors our wholesale buyers ship most — each one written from the loading dock, not the brochure: origin port clusters, discharge gateways, typical transit ranges, FCL versus LCL fit, cost structure, and the operating pitfalls that create avoidable per-diem bills.
All transit figures are typical port-to-port ranges and vary by carrier, rotation, and season; every page itemizes the cost structure but quotes no figures, because liner pricing is confirmed per booking with a validity window.
China → US West Coast
→- POL
- Shanghai · Ningbo · Shenzhen · Qingdao
- POD
- Los Angeles / Long Beach · Oakland
- Time
- Typical 11–16 days
Transpacific southwest loops; import-rail reach to Chicago and Dallas.
China → US East Coast
→- POL
- Shanghai · Ningbo · Shenzhen
- POD
- New York · Savannah · Charleston · Norfolk
- Time
- Typical 24–32 days via Panama
All-water strings; direct drayage into East Coast DCs without rail handovers.
China → US Gulf
→- POL
- Shanghai · Ningbo
- POD
- Houston · Mobile · New Orleans
- Time
- Typical 28–38 days
Gulf all-water service with hurricane-season planning and river/rail alternatives.
China → North Europe
→- POL
- Shanghai · Ningbo · Shenzhen
- POD
- Rotterdam · Antwerp · Hamburg · Felixstowe
- Time
- Typical 26–32 days
Rhine delta and German gateways; ENS/EORI entry mechanics and UK separation.
China → Mediterranean
→- POL
- Shanghai · Ningbo · Shenzhen
- POD
- Piraeus · Genoa · Valencia · Marsaxlokk
- Time
- Typical 25–35 days
Suez rotations into East and West Med gateways with feeder connections.
China → Middle East Gulf
→- POL
- Shanghai · Ningbo
- POD
- Jebel Ali · Jeddah · Dammam
- Time
- Typical 15–24 days
Gulf express service; certification-first planning and pre-Ramadan capacity peaks.
How to Choose a Lane, in Order
- Start from the DC, not the ocean. Pick the discharge port nearest your destination warehouse network; a cheap ocean line item into the wrong gateway costs more in inland trucking and missed free days than it saves.
- Check customs territory, not just geography. Separate entries per customs territory (EU vs UK, UAE vs Saudi Arabia) mean separate bookings and registrations — plan containers per destination, not per vessel.
- Model the box, then the route. Cube and weight decide your equipment; equipment and frequency decide which strings can carry you. The container fill planner settles the first question before you quote the second.
- Book to the vessel, then watch the calendar. Peak-season windows, canal transit conditions, and holiday receiving closures move real dates; confirm cut-offs and free-time terms on the service order, and re-check them as the sailing approaches.
Trade Lane FAQ
Which lane should a first-time wholesale importer start with?
Start from your destination market: East Coast DCs sit naturally on the all-water USEC service, Texas and the Southwest on the Gulf lane, and California plus rail-served interior markets on the US West Coast. Europe-bound programs split between the Rhine delta and German gateways by DC location, and Gulf-state retail sits on the Jebel Ali-centered service. Read the matching lane guide first, then model your volume before booking.
Do you quote rates on these lane pages?
No — deliberately. Liner pricing changes weekly with capacity cycles, surcharges, and validity windows, so we publish the cost structure instead: base ocean freight, origin charges, destination charges, and free-time terms, each confirmed line by line on a live quote. Any specific figure would be stale by the time you read it.
Can one shipment span two lanes?
Yes, and it is common: a multi-DC program may split a booking so one box rides the transpacific southwest service and another the all-water East Coast string. The key discipline is one clean entry per customs territory and per discharge market — we quote and document each box separately so free time and clearance never get tangled across destinations.
Request Commercial Ocean Freight RFQ
Submit your container shipment details to our Ningbo port desk for contracted space and spot carrier pricing within 12 hours.
Last reviewed: September 2026 — lane coverage and transit ranges are typical and confirmed per booking.