China to Container Cost from China Sea Freight

Shekou → Chennai Container Shipping

Full-container sea freight from China to India, Shekou to Chennai. A whole box is the right structure once your volume passes roughly 15 CBM, or as soon as the cargo is heavy, oversized or awkward to consolidate with anyone else's — below that threshold LCL usually wins on cost, above it FCL wins on both cost per CBM and handling risk. Transit runs 14–22 days port to port port to port.

Port-to-port means exactly that: the rate ends at the Chennai terminal gate. Typical dwell at destination runs 3–8 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 on application. We move containers on this lane but do not publish a standing figure for it, and we would rather quote it than print a number we cannot hold. Send us the commodity, box type and required ETD and we will come back with the allocation price.

Rate by Container Type

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

Booking Conditions and Destination Requirements

What you are buying on Shekou to Chennai is the ocean leg and nothing else: the box on the vessel, from quay to quay. Pre-carriage in China, clearance into India, duty and tax, and the final delivery run beyond Chennai are each priced separately. Ask for the door figure if you want to compare this against a DDP quote, because the two are not the same number.

• Priced per box in USD for 20GP and 40HQ, not per KG or per CBM — utilization is yours to optimize
• Transit 14–22 days port to port port to port on Shekou to Chennai, 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 Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC); the consignee must be registered to import
• Destination conformity for India: BIS registration under the Compulsory Registration Scheme for electronics; WPC/ETA approval for wireless devices; the consignee must hold a valid Importer-Exporter Code (IEC)

Two things decide whether an FCL booking runs cleanly. The first is container choice: a 40HQ carries roughly 76 CBM against a 20GP's 33, so where the cargo cubes out rather than weighs out, the bigger box is usually cheaper per unit even though it costs more per booking. The second is documentation — the packing list has to match what is physically inside, because Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) inspects against the declaration rather than against intent.

Paperwork closes more shipments into India late than freight does. Invoice, packing list and any certificate of origin have to describe the same goods at the same value, and the description has to be specific enough to classify — 'electronic parts' is not a description, it is an invitation to be examined.