Shipping from China to the United States: transit time, landed cost and who clears customs

How long does shipping from China to the United States take?

These are planning ranges measured from South China loading ports to the US gateway. Port-to-port means the vessel's arrival at the US port; door-to-door adds destination clearance and inland delivery, which typically adds 5–12 days depending on how far inland the final address is.

Route	Mode	Port to port	Door to door
Yantian / Shekou → Los Angeles / Long Beach	FCL	14–18 days	20–30 days
Yantian / Shekou → Oakland	FCL	15–19 days	21–31 days
Yantian / Shekou → Seattle / Tacoma	FCL	16–20 days	22–32 days
Yantian / Shekou → New York / New Jersey	FCL	28–35 days	33–45 days
Yantian / Shekou → Savannah	FCL	30–36 days	35–46 days
Yantian / Shekou → Houston	FCL	25–40 days	30–50 days
Any South China port	LCL	18–25 days US West Coast / 32–42 days US East Coast	Adds 3–6 days over FCL for devanning
Shenzhen / Guangzhou / Hong Kong	Air freight	3–5 days airport to airport	5–8 days
Any China origin	Express courier	—	2–5 business days

East Coast routings move with the Panama Canal and with Red Sea diversions, so the East Coast figures carry more variance than the West Coast. The range stated in your quotation is the one the booking is based on.

Who clears customs on a China to US shipment?

Every US import has exactly one importer of record (IOR). The IOR is the party legally responsible for the entry: for the accuracy of the declared value, classification and origin, for paying duty and fees, and for keeping the records CBP can audit for five years. Choosing the IOR is therefore a commercial decision, not a formality, and it is the single question most China-to-US quotations leave unanswered.

There are four workable arrangements, and only four:

• Your US entity is the importer of record. This is the standard structure for a company with a US presence or a US-registered buyer. You need an Employer Identification Number (or a CBP-assigned importer number), a customs bond, and a customs broker to file the entry. You keep full control of the declaration and you recover any duty you overpaid.
• We clear the shipment under a DDP scope. Where a compliant arrangement can be confirmed for the goods and the destination, we act as or arrange the importer of record and the bond, settle duty and fees, and deliver to the address. The quotation states which party imports and what is included, so responsibility is visible before the cargo ships.
• Your customs broker is the importer of record. Some brokers will act as a non-resident importer for a fee. It is a real structure, but it concentrates the compliance risk and the record-keeping duty with a third party, and not every broker offers it.
• DDU / DAP: the consignee clears. We deliver to the port or the door with duty unpaid, and the consignee clears the goods with its own importer identity. This is the correct structure when a compliant DDP arrangement cannot be confirmed, and pretending otherwise is how shipments get stranded at the port.

A Chinese seller cannot simply declare itself the importer of record without an arrangement that CBP accepts. A foreign entity needs a US agent for service of process and, in practice, a customs bond and a US tax identity before CBP will accept its entry. This is the detail that makes "DDP to the USA" a question of eligibility rather than a price.

Which entry mechanics decide your landed cost in 2026?

Mechanism	What it means for your shipment
De minimis (Section 321)	The $800 duty-free exemption has been suspended for all countries since 29 August 2025. Commercial shipments are no longer duty-free by value, and a formal or informal entry is required instead. This applies to postal and courier shipments as well.
Formal entry	Required above the informal entry threshold. Needs an entry summary (CBP Form 7501), a customs bond and a licensed broker to file. Duty, MPF and HMF are assessed on the entry.
Informal entry	Available below the threshold, with a simplified declaration. It still requires an importer of record, still requires duty to be paid, and still requires a bond in most cases — it is a lighter procedure, not a duty exemption.
Customs bond	A financial guarantee to CBP, not insurance. A continuous bond covers a year of entries and is sized against estimated annual duty; a single-entry (single transaction) bond covers one entry and is sized against that entry's estimated duty and fees. Repeat importers almost always use a continuous bond.
ISF 10+2	The Importer Security Filing must be filed 24 hours before the vessel is loaded at the origin port. Late or missing ISF carries a penalty exposure of up to $5,000 per violation, and it cannot be fixed after sailing.
Section 301 duty	Applies to many China-origin commodity codes at rates that depend on which list the code sits in. Additional tariff actions have been layered on since 2025 and the position changes, so the total duty rate for your HS code is confirmed before a price is quoted rather than assumed.
MPF and HMF	Merchandise Processing Fee is charged as a percentage of entered value with a minimum and maximum per formal entry, and is adjusted for inflation. Harbor Maintenance Fee is charged on ocean imports only, not on air freight. Both are added to the duty figure.

What does a landed cost actually contain?

Landed cost is the total you pay before the cargo is yours and in your warehouse. It has seven parts, and most disagreements about quotations come from one party counting five of them and the other counting seven:

1. Goods value — what you paid the supplier, which must be defensible against the commercial invoice.
2. Origin charges — supplier pickup, warehouse handling, consolidation, container loading and the China export declaration.
3. International freight — ocean per container or per chargeable cubic metre, or air per chargeable kilo.
4. Duty — the HTS base rate for the commodity code, plus Section 301 or other trade-remedy duty where it applies.
5. Import fees — MPF, and HMF on ocean shipments.
6. Destination charges — terminal handling, arrival agency fees, customs brokerage, and any exam, storage or demurrage charges if the container is held.
7. Final delivery — truck or rail to the delivery address, appointment, and unloading if the scope includes it.

Two further items sit outside the goods cost but hit the same budget: insurance, if you choose to cover the cargo, and duty recovery, which is the value a VAT-equivalent system does not give you in the US — unlike UK import VAT, US duty is a real cost rather than a recoverable one.

LCL or FCL: where does the crossover sit?

Below roughly 10 chargeable cubic metres, LCL usually costs less because you pay only for the space you use. Between roughly 10 and 15 CBM both options are worth pricing. Above roughly 15 CBM a container is normally cheaper per unit, and it is also faster and handled less: an LCL shipment is consolidated with other cargo, devanned at destination, and every additional hand is an additional chance of damage or delay. Dense cargo can also be billed on weight rather than volume, which pushes the crossover earlier.

Why do two quotations for the same cargo differ so much?

When two prices for the same shipment differ by a wide margin, the difference is almost never the ocean freight rate. It is what each quotation silently excludes: destination terminal handling, arrival agency fees, customs brokerage, duty and MPF, the delivery leg, waiting time at the delivery address, and storage if the container is held. A price that includes all seven landed-cost parts is not comparable to one that stops at the port. Ask every supplier of a quotation for the same three things: the routing the price is based on, the list of destination charges included, and who is named as the importer of record.

What do we need to quote this properly?

• Supplier address in China, and whether there is more than one supplier
• Destination city, state and postcode, and the address type (warehouse, FBA, commercial, residential)
• Cargo name, material and use, with photos or a product link where possible
• Piece count, gross weight and carton dimensions, or the volume if already packed
• Whether the cargo can be stacked, and whether any piece is oversized or over-length
• Cargo-ready date and your required delivery window
• Whether you have a US importer of record and a customs bond, or need us to arrange the import
• The HS code if you have one, and the declared value basis

With those details a formal quotation is issued within one hour, stating the routing, the transit range with its start and end points, the destination charges included, and which party imports.