🚢 Sea Freight

Sea Freight from China to Colon

China → Colon · via PTY air / Manzanillo sea · clearance by Autoridad Nacional de Aduanas de Panamá

Cargo handling on the China–Colon lane.

Freight from China into Colon clears through PTY air / Manzanillo sea. Colon is the Colon Free Zone and Atlantic container hub, and the inland leg is same-day, so the clearance date is effectively the delivery date.

The clearing authority is Autoridad Nacional de Aduanas de Panamá. Historical dwell on this gateway is around 2–5 days, and it lengthens in Sep–Nov.

How this lane actually runs

The Colón Free Zone is the largest free port in the Americas and the natural staging point for Chinese goods distributed across Central America, the Caribbean and northern South America. Cargo can sit in the zone duty-free and be re-exported in smaller lots, which is a far more efficient structure than shipping direct to a dozen small markets.

Sea gateways used	Balboa (Pacific), Colón / Manzanillo (Atlantic)
Sea transit, China to gateway	22–30 calendar days
Gateway serving Colon	PTY air / Manzanillo sea
Inland leg to Colon	Same day from the gateway
Typical clearance / dwell	2–5 days
Peak season to plan around	Sep–Nov

What you will pay on arrival in Panama

Imports into Panama are cleared by Autoridad Nacional de Aduanas de Panamá. The headline position is: ITBMS 7%; duty 0–15%, with 0% inside the Colón Free Zone. The de-minimis threshold is USD 100 for courier consignments.

Conformity is the part most first-time importers underestimate: Conformity requirements for regulated goods; health registration for food and cosmetics. Getting this wrong is expensive because it usually cannot be fixed after the cargo has landed.

Restrictions and known friction points for Panama: Free Zone re-export and Panamanian domestic import are different regimes — clarify which applies. Canal transit conditions can affect Atlantic-side schedules during low-water periods.

Container terminal operations used on the China to Colon (Panama) freight lane — Handling on the PTY air / Manzanillo sea routing serving Colon.

Pre-shipment checklist for Colon

Photograph carton markings and seal numbers before departure — it makes any claim far easier to settle.
Use ISPM-15 treated pallets. Untreated wood is the most common reason otherwise-clean cargo gets held.
Check the de-minimis position (USD 100 for courier consignments) against your invoice value before you decide how to split the shipment.
Declare lithium batteries, magnets, liquids and powders up front — retro-declaring after booking usually means re-planning the whole shipment.
Budget for the inland leg: same-day delivery beyond gateway clearance to reach Colon.
Confirm the consignee in Colon can act as importer of record — Autoridad Nacional de Aduanas de Panamá will not release cargo to an unregistered party.

Frequently asked questions

How long does shipping from China to Colon take?

China to the Panama gateway is 22–30 calendar days. On top of that, allow 2–5 days of clearance with Autoridad Nacional de Aduanas de Panamá and a same-day inland leg to Colon.

What duty and tax will I pay importing into Colon?

Autoridad Nacional de Aduanas de Panamá applies: ITBMS 7%; duty 0–15%, with 0% inside the Colón Free Zone. The de-minimis position is USD 100 for courier consignments. Under a DDP arrangement these are pre-paid, so nothing is collected on arrival in Colon.

Can you deliver door-to-door in Colon?

Yes. Delivery to a Colon address is quoted as one figure covering freight, duty and tax owed to Autoridad Nacional de Aduanas de Panamá, and the same-day inland leg. Confirm whether your consignee wants the goods at a warehouse, a marketplace fulfillment center or a shop front, because the last-mile requirement differs.

Is sea freight cheaper than air freight into Colon?

Per kilo, yes — usually by a wide margin. The trade-off is time: 22–30 calendar days by sea versus 4–6 business days by air to the Panama gateway, before clearance and the same-day inland leg. The crossover point is normally somewhere between 100 and 300 kg depending on the density of your cargo.

How is the chargeable weight calculated for Colon?

We compare actual gross weight against volumetric weight — length × width × height in centimeters divided by 6000 for air — and bill the greater of the two, rounded up to the next kilogram. Light, bulky cargo is almost always billed on volume.

Can you ship batteries or sensitive cargo to Colon?

Yes. Battery cargo by sea moves under UN3480/UN3481 with an MSDS, and the dangerous-goods documentation is prepared as part of the booking into Balboa (Pacific), Colón / Manzanillo (Atlantic). Surcharges apply and space is more limited than for general cargo.

Other delivery cities in Panama

All Panama freight information →

References & official sources

Duty rates, thresholds and conformity requirements for Panama change by ministerial decision, sometimes mid-year. The figures on this page are buyer-planning references, not a customs ruling — confirm the current position for your own HS code with Autoridad Nacional de Aduanas de Panamá or your broker before you ship.

Page data last reviewed: 8 月 2026.

Shipping by industry

This page covers the route and clearance picture for the destination. Packing, classification and the compliance step that actually holds a shipment depend on what you are sending — these guides cover that by commodity.

All 139 industry guides →

Checking the Panama duty position yourself

Duty and tax figures on this page are planning estimates. The binding assessment is made by Autoridad Nacional de Aduanas de Panamá against your declared HS code at the time of entry; where the amount is material, verify the current rate through ITC Market Access Map before committing to an 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 Panama, the Panama 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.

Watch: the process behind this route

This guide covers routing and clearance for Colon. The video below covers the wider shipping process that sits around it.

Sea Freight from China: How to import from China to your country via Ocean Shipping — SINO Shipping. Published on YouTube by a third party; we link it because it explains the process well, not because we produced it or endorse the provider.

Get a rate for Colon

This lane is quoted per shipment rather than from a published rate card, because the landed cost depends on the commodity, its density, the conformity requirements above and the delivery point. Send the cargo details and we will come back with a full DDP figure.

Request a quote → See the Panama route page →

Customs clearance in Panama

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

Panama clearance requirements →