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🚢 Sea Freight

China to Hamburg Sea Freight: Container Rates and Schedule Sea Freight

Door-to-door transit 25-45 calendar days. Duty and final delivery are inside the published rate.

Container vessel and terminal operations on the Shanghai to Hamburg ocean freight lane
Sea freight — China to Germany

Sea Freight from China to Hamburg Sea Freight: Container Rates and Schedule runs 25-45 calendar days door to door, clearing through the destination customs authority. Rates shown are indicative freight estimates; duty, tax and customs handling depend on the commodity and are quoted separately. Send weight, dimensions and product details for a firm figure.

Transit time
25-45 calendar days
Destination
Hamburg Sea Freight: Container Rates and Schedule, Germany
Customs authority
the destination customs authority
Duty-free threshold
EUR 150

Indicative published channel rate for planning, not a quotation. What you actually pay depends on the product and its HS code, chargeable weight, declared value, duty and tax at destination and the exchange rate on the day — it can come in above or below this.

Current Freight Rates

Price data updating. Contact us for current rates.

Trade Terms Explained — Who Pays for What EXW, FOB, CIF, DDP and seven more — see which costs sit with us and which sit with you

The rate above is quoted on one specific trade term. Change the term and you change how much of the journey to Germany is already inside the price. The table below maps the eleven common Incoterms® against the twelve cost stages of a door-to-door shipment, so you can see exactly where our responsibility ends and yours begins.

  • Seller — Cost and arrangement sit with the seller / shipper.
  • Buyer — Cost and arrangement sit with the buyer / consignee.
  • Negotiable — Not fixed by the rule — agree it in the contract.
Responsibility for each shipment stage under each Incoterms rule
Term 1 Loading on truck 2 Export customs declaration 3 Carriage to port of export 4 Unloading at port of export 5 Loading on vessel / aircraft 6 Main carriage 7 Cargo insurance 8 Unloading at port of import 9 Loading on truck at import 10 Carriage to destination 11 Import customs clearance 12 Import duties & taxes
EXW Ex Works Buyer Buyer — Loading on truck Buyer Buyer — Export customs declaration Buyer Buyer — Carriage to port of export Buyer Buyer — Unloading at port of export Buyer Buyer — Loading on vessel / aircraft Buyer Buyer — Main carriage Buyer Buyer — Cargo insurance Buyer Buyer — Unloading at port of import Buyer Buyer — Loading on truck at import Buyer Buyer — Carriage to destination Buyer Buyer — Import customs clearance Buyer Buyer — Import duties & taxes
FCA Free Carrier Seller Seller — Loading on truck Seller Seller — Export customs declaration Buyer Buyer — Carriage to port of export Buyer Buyer — Unloading at port of export Buyer Buyer — Loading on vessel / aircraft Buyer Buyer — Main carriage Buyer Buyer — Cargo insurance Buyer Buyer — Unloading at port of import Buyer Buyer — Loading on truck at import Buyer Buyer — Carriage to destination Buyer Buyer — Import customs clearance Buyer Buyer — Import duties & taxes
FAS Free Alongside Ship Seller Seller — Loading on truck Seller Seller — Export customs declaration Seller Seller — Carriage to port of export Seller Seller — Unloading at port of export Buyer Buyer — Loading on vessel / aircraft Buyer Buyer — Main carriage Buyer Buyer — Cargo insurance Buyer Buyer — Unloading at port of import Buyer Buyer — Loading on truck at import Buyer Buyer — Carriage to destination Buyer Buyer — Import customs clearance Buyer Buyer — Import duties & taxes
FOB Free On Board Seller Seller — Loading on truck Seller Seller — Export customs declaration Seller Seller — Carriage to port of export Seller Seller — Unloading at port of export Seller Seller — Loading on vessel / aircraft Buyer Buyer — Main carriage Buyer Buyer — Cargo insurance Buyer Buyer — Unloading at port of import Buyer Buyer — Loading on truck at import Buyer Buyer — Carriage to destination Buyer Buyer — Import customs clearance Buyer Buyer — Import duties & taxes
CFR Cost and Freight Seller Seller — Loading on truck Seller Seller — Export customs declaration Seller Seller — Carriage to port of export Seller Seller — Unloading at port of export Seller Seller — Loading on vessel / aircraft Seller Seller — Main carriage Buyer Buyer — Cargo insurance Buyer Buyer — Unloading at port of import Buyer Buyer — Loading on truck at import Buyer Buyer — Carriage to destination Buyer Buyer — Import customs clearance Buyer Buyer — Import duties & taxes
CIF Cost, Insurance and Freight Seller Seller — Loading on truck Seller Seller — Export customs declaration Seller Seller — Carriage to port of export Seller Seller — Unloading at port of export Seller Seller — Loading on vessel / aircraft Seller Seller — Main carriage Seller Seller — Cargo insurance Buyer Buyer — Unloading at port of import Buyer Buyer — Loading on truck at import Buyer Buyer — Carriage to destination Buyer Buyer — Import customs clearance Buyer Buyer — Import duties & taxes
CPT Carriage Paid To Seller Seller — Loading on truck Seller Seller — Export customs declaration Seller Seller — Carriage to port of export Seller Seller — Unloading at port of export Seller Seller — Loading on vessel / aircraft Seller Seller — Main carriage Negotiable Negotiable — Cargo insurance Seller Seller — Unloading at port of import Seller Seller — Loading on truck at import Seller Seller — Carriage to destination Buyer Buyer — Import customs clearance Buyer Buyer — Import duties & taxes
CIP Carriage and Insurance Paid Seller Seller — Loading on truck Seller Seller — Export customs declaration Seller Seller — Carriage to port of export Seller Seller — Unloading at port of export Seller Seller — Loading on vessel / aircraft Seller Seller — Main carriage Seller Seller — Cargo insurance Seller Seller — Unloading at port of import Seller Seller — Loading on truck at import Seller Seller — Carriage to destination Buyer Buyer — Import customs clearance Buyer Buyer — Import duties & taxes
DAT Delivered At Terminal (DPU) Seller Seller — Loading on truck Seller Seller — Export customs declaration Seller Seller — Carriage to port of export Seller Seller — Unloading at port of export Seller Seller — Loading on vessel / aircraft Seller Seller — Main carriage Negotiable Negotiable — Cargo insurance Seller Seller — Unloading at port of import Buyer Buyer — Loading on truck at import Buyer Buyer — Carriage to destination Buyer Buyer — Import customs clearance Buyer Buyer — Import duties & taxes
DAP Delivered At Place Seller Seller — Loading on truck Seller Seller — Export customs declaration Seller Seller — Carriage to port of export Seller Seller — Unloading at port of export Seller Seller — Loading on vessel / aircraft Seller Seller — Main carriage Negotiable Negotiable — Cargo insurance Seller Seller — Unloading at port of import Seller Seller — Loading on truck at import Seller Seller — Carriage to destination Buyer Buyer — Import customs clearance Buyer Buyer — Import duties & taxes
DDP Delivered Duty Paid Seller Seller — Loading on truck Seller Seller — Export customs declaration Seller Seller — Carriage to port of export Seller Seller — Unloading at port of export Seller Seller — Loading on vessel / aircraft Seller Seller — Main carriage Negotiable Negotiable — Cargo insurance Seller Seller — Unloading at port of import Seller Seller — Loading on truck at import Seller Seller — Carriage to destination Seller Seller — Import customs clearance Seller Seller — Import duties & taxes

EXW Ex Works

Buyer takes over at the seller's door and carries every cost from there. Lowest quoted price, highest buyer workload.

FCA Free Carrier

Seller clears the goods for export and hands them to the carrier the buyer nominated.

FAS Free Alongside Ship

Sea and inland waterway only. Seller delivers alongside the vessel; loading is on the buyer.

FOB Free On Board

Sea and inland waterway only. Risk passes once the goods are on board. The most common buying term.

CFR Cost and Freight

Seller pays the main carriage but carries no insurance obligation; risk still passes on loading.

CIF Cost, Insurance and Freight

As CFR, plus the seller must buy and pay for cargo insurance (minimum cover unless you agree more).

CPT Carriage Paid To

Any mode. Seller pays carriage through to the named destination; insurance is not obligatory.

CIP Carriage and Insurance Paid

As CPT, plus the seller must insure the cargo through to the named destination.

DAT Delivered At Terminal (DPU)

Seller delivers unloaded at the named terminal. Renamed DPU (Delivered at Place Unloaded) in Incoterms® 2020.

DAP Delivered At Place

Seller delivers to your address ready for unloading; import clearance and duty stay with the buyer.

DDP Delivered Duty Paid

Seller carries everything through to your door, duty and tax included. Highest quoted price, least buyer workload.

Two things worth flagging. Under CIF and CIP the seller is obliged to buy cargo insurance and pay the premium; under every other term insurance is optional, and we recommend buyers arrange their own cover so a loss or damage in transit is recoverable. And this table is a working summary for planning purposes — the binding definitions are the ones published by the International Chamber of Commerce in the Incoterms® rules, so confirm the exact term wording in your sales contract before you ship.

Service Details

Shanghai → Hamburg Container Shipping

Shanghai to Hamburg container shipping, priced per box rather than per CBM. This is the lane to book when the cargo fills a container or when it should not share one: machinery, stone, steel, building materials and project pieces all move better as FCL because nothing else is loaded around them. Plan on 30–40 days port to port port to port.

Port-to-port means exactly that: the rate ends at the Hamburg terminal gate. Typical dwell at destination runs 3–6 days before the box is available for collection, and that window sits outside the transit figure above. Origin haulage, export declaration, destination clearance, duty and delivery beyond the terminal are all quoted separately, so ask for a door figure if that is what you are comparing against.

Rate by Container Type

  • 20GP — quoted on request for the current sailing
  • 40HQ — quoted on request for the current sailing

Every consignment on this service is measured as well as weighed. Volumetric weight is L×W×H in centimetres divided by 6000 — one cubic metre counted as roughly 166.7 kg — and whichever figure is higher is the one charged. Dense cargo pays on its weight; light bulky cargo pays on its volume, and repacking to raise density is often the cheapest saving available on a Germany shipment.

Typical cargo on this route: furniture (HS 94), where clearance turns on timber due diligence (EUTR / EUDR) and UK upholstery fire regulations, flexible packaging (HS 39 / 40) and fasteners (HS 73 / 82 / 83). If yours is on that list the commodity page is worth two minutes — it covers how the goods should leave the factory, how they should sit in the container, and the failure mode we see most often on this kind of freight.

To see this tariff against a real consignment rather than a rate card, the 100 KG, 300 KG and 500 KG pages run it at a fixed weight and show the landed total, including the point where stepping up a bracket lowers your cost per kilo. They are the fastest way to check whether consolidating two orders into one is worth the wait.

We move sea freight cargo for Germany through Hamburg, Bremerhaven and Wilhelmshaven. The quoted rate covers the ocean leg to whichever of those the vessel calls at; the difference between them shows up in the trucking cost beyond the quay, which is why it pays to name the delivery city when you ask for a quote rather than just the country.

The table above prices the lane, but most buyers arrive with a consignment already in mind. If yours has a known weight, the 100 KG, 300 KG and 500 KG breakdowns run this tariff against a fixed shipment so you see a landed number rather than a rate per kilo, and the China to Germany Sea Freight Cost page sets every channel we run on this lane side by side. For the wider picture including documentation and duty, start from shipping from China to Germany.

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Additional Information

Scope, Exclusions and What to Check Before Booking

This is a port-to-port FCL rate for Shanghai to Hamburg. It covers ocean freight for one container and stops at the Hamburg terminal gate. Everything either side of that — trucking to Shanghai, customs at both ends, duty and tax for Germany, inland delivery — is quoted on request rather than bundled, which keeps the freight number comparable between carriers.

  • Priced per box in USD for 20GP and 40HQ, not per KG or per CBM — utilization is yours to optimize
  • Transit 30–40 days port to port port to port on Shanghai to Hamburg, subject to the sailing booked
  • Heavy and out-of-gauge cargo is core traffic here: machinery, steel, stone, building materials, project pieces
  • Cut-off and free time attach to the specific sailing; demurrage begins the day free time expires
  • Reefer, dangerous goods and out-of-gauge are priced case by case rather than from the card
  • Clearance at destination is handled by German Customs (Zoll); the consignee must be registered to import
  • Destination conformity for Germany: CE marking + EU IOSS for B2C

The most expensive mistake on a Shanghai to Hamburg booking is not the freight rate, it is free time. Demurrage and detention start counting at the Hamburg terminal whether or not your consignee is ready, and on a bad week they can exceed the ocean freight itself. Confirm how many free days the booking carries before you fix a collection date.

Before you book, confirm two things with your consignee: that they are registered to import into Germany, and that whoever is named as importer of record accepts the duty liability. Those are dull questions and they are also the two that most often surface only after the cargo has already sailed.

Where these numbers come from

Treat the landed-cost numbers here as a planning baseline. German Customs (Zoll) sets the rate that actually gets charged, assessed against your HS classification at the moment of clearance, so their own guidance is worth reading before a large order.

If you want to sanity-check a duty figure yourself, start from the heading rather than the product name — the WCO Harmonized System is the underlying nomenclature, and the WTO Tariff & Trade Data portal holds the applied rates by country pair.

For ocean cargo, restricted commodities move under the IMO's IMDG Code, and the container has to be declared and stowed accordingly. Batteries, flammables and corrosives all have a compliant ocean path; what causes rolled bookings is finding out about them after the container is packed.

On the origin side, export declaration and any commodity inspection requirement fall under China Customs (GACC); we handle that filing as part of the service, but the requirement is theirs, not ours.

If this is your first shipment into Germany, the Germany Country Commercial Guide covers the practical import environment in more depth than a rate page reasonably can, and it is written by a party with no stake in your booking.

China to Germany — Shipping Reference Data

Main sea gatewaysHamburg, Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven
Destination customs authorityGerman Customs (Zoll)
De-minimis / duty-free thresholdEUR 150
Import tax & duty regimeImport VAT 19%; duty 0–12% by TARIC
Local currencyEUR
Typical clearance / dwell time3–6 days
Peak / busy seasonSep–Nov
Conformity & certificationCE marking + EU IOSS for B2C

Thresholds and duty bands are buyer-planning references, not formal customs rulings — confirm the exact HS-code rate for your goods before shipping.

Free 3D Loading Tools for This Sea Route

This page covers a Sea freight service from China to Germany. Use the matching tool below to plan your cargo before requesting a quote.

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3D Container Loading Planner

Wondering whether your cargo fills a 20GP or needs a 40HQ for this Germany route? The 3D container planner simulates cartons, crates, pallets, and even mixed box sizes in one container.

Open Container Planner →

Germany Sea Freight Checklist

  • Photograph the container number, seal, and loading process for insurance evidence.
  • Confirm whether your Germany rate is per CBM or per container before comparing quotes.
  • Reserve loading space 5-7 days before the sailing cut-off for this route during peak season.
  • Declare accurate gross weight — VGM misdeclaration delays vessels and triggers fines.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does Sea FCL Port-to-Port from China to Germany take?

Sea freight on this route runs about 25–45 calendar days door-to-door, plus roughly 3–6 days of clearance/dwell once it reaches the gateway. All times include customs clearance under DDP terms.

What duties and taxes apply when importing into Germany?

Clearance is handled by German Customs (Zoll). The regime is: Import VAT 19%; duty 0–12% by TARIC, with a de-minimis position of EUR 150. Under DDP these are pre-paid, so nothing is collected on arrival.

In what currency is this route priced and paid?

Freight is quoted and invoiced in USD; the destination-side currency is EUR. Payment is typically due before departure, and DDP means you settle the full landed cost once.

Which ports or airports does this route use into Germany?

Sea cargo to Germany clears through Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven; air freight clears via FRA (Frankfurt), MUC (Munich), CGN. We route through whichever gateway gives the fastest onward delivery to your address and build it into the DDP price.

How is the shipping cost on this route calculated?

We compare actual gross weight against volumetric weight (L×W×H ÷ 6000, so one cubic metre counts as about 166.7 kg) and charge whichever is greater, rounded up to the next kilogram, then apply the per-KG rate shown in the table above. A 300 kg consignment measuring out to only 200 kg volumetric is still charged on the 300 kg.

What documents are required for customs clearance in Germany?

German Customs (Zoll) typically requires a commercial invoice with HS codes, a packing list, the bill of lading/air waybill, a certificate of origin (may lower duty), and any product certification (CE marking + EU IOSS for B2C). We file these under DDP.

Shipping Germany cargo by industry

This rate is for the lane. What decides whether the cargo arrives intact is the commodity — how it prices, how it must be packed and loaded, and which compliance step holds it at the border. These guides cover that per industry.

All 60 industry guides →

Get a quote — Germany

Send the cargo details below and we price your actual shipment. Weight, dimensions and what the goods are is everything we need to come back with a firm number.

Answer these and you get a real price, not a range. These are the exact figures a carrier needs before it will quote. Fill them in once and we can price your cargo the same day — leave them out and we have to come back and ask, which is what turns an hour into a week.

kg
ctn
Carton sizeoptional
× × cm
m³
ctr
Built-in battery?* Lithium cells are dangerous goods.
Someone else's brand?* Logos you are not authorised to ship.
Magnetic product?* Speakers, motors, magnets.
Why these three decide everything

They determine whether your cargo can fly, and on which service. A declared battery changes the price; an undeclared one grounds the shipment at the airport and you pay storage while it sits. Unauthorised brands are seized at customs and the freight is lost with them. Magnetic goods need a field test — routine, but it has to be booked ahead. Telling us now costs a click; telling us later costs the shipment.

Sea or air?*
Tick both and we quote both.
When should it move?optional
Photographs of the goodsoptional
    Your details are used to prepare this quotation and nothing else.

    Customs clearance in Germany

    Duty and tax position, certification, typical port dwell and what actually holds shipments at this border — plus who files the entry.

    Germany clearance requirements →