When people are going to get cargo shipped from China to other countries, they always want to know how long the transportation will take. But when you are using ships to get cargo out of China, there can only be a very rough idea about the ETT (estimated transit time, between the estimated time of departure and estimated time of arrival) .
Here is a rough ETT from China to other countries, use it as reference.
Region | ETT |
USA & Canada (West) | 20 days |
USA & Canada (Eest) | 30 days |
Western Europe | 25 days |
Northern Europe | 30 days |
Southern Europe | 27 days |
Australia | 15 days |
India | 15 days |
Southeast Asia | 9 days |
Eastern Africa | 30 days |
Western Africa | 40 days |
Japan | 3 days |
South Korea | 4 days |
South America (East) | 30 days |
South America (West) | 45 days |
Please know that there could be 4 to 9 days difference in transportation that vary from different carriers, loading port and unloading port.
Here is another chart that shows the time for using different carrier from China’s Qingdao Port to Germany’s Hamburg Port.
Different carrier | ETT |
By EMC | 33 days |
By KLINE | 31 days |
By YML | 31 days |
By OOCL | 32 days |
By ANL | 30 days |
By MSC | 38 days |
By COSCO | 34 days |
By NYK | 32 days |
By WanHai | 34 days |
By CSCL | 31 days |
By CMA | 30 days |
By PIL | 33 days |
By CSAV | 37 days |
By UASC | 28 days |
By IRISL | 42 days |
By HPL | 32 days |
Sea carriers never guarantee the ETD and ETA to be accurate, so there may be another 7 days (or even more) before the cargo is loaded or unloaded.
Ocean transportation is slow, so you need to have generous margins and plan for the possible delays. Furthermore, most manufactures in China need time to produce your products. So make sure that you place your order as early as possible. Let’s say you want to have your products ready before Christmas, you should get your order placed before September or August or even earlier.