Aug
09
How Long Does It Take For A Container Ship To Get From Ningbo China To Los Angeles California?
I am about to place an order for materials from china i know the production time but i cant get a straight answer about the shipping time from Ningbo port in china to the port of Los Angeles. I would really appreciate any help.
Please be certain about your answers and don’t guess. Thanks
the reason you can’t get a straight answer, is because there is not one. They can tell you when the container will get to the port, and GUESS at how long it will sit there – which is very variable in today’s environment. The ships are not moving until they are full, and shipping volumes are so low that there are not always a ship load of containers waiting at the port. Once the ship leaves port, it will be four to six weeks – used to be about half that; but the shipping companies slowed the ships to save on fuel.
In my last company, we shipped a lot for China, and I am still friends with the Logistics Manager. She has a relationship with freight forwarders around the world, and enough influence to get on specific ships. Things are bad right now, which increases uncertainty.
And related – you know that the shipping contract says that the captain can toss the container if he feels he needs to due to rough seas or anything that might endanger the ship, and you have no recourse against the shipping company? That is part of the contract, and you need to carry your own insurance.
In 1999 it took 8 days for the ship I was on to get from Taiwan to Tacoma, WA and another 1.5 days to San Francisco. Figure 10 days worth of shipping time if you can find a ship that goes from one port to the other. If it needs to sit on the dock for awhile somewhere before getting on another ship or train to LA, it could take awhile longer; it’s not the moving part that takes much time, but the waiting to move part. Some ships are going on around the world routes, so it might take 50 days if it gets on one of those ships and goes the wrong way around.
Don’t worry about the captain intentionally throwing it over- we don’t have the equipment to do that with. I have seen where the longshoremen didn’t fasten the containers down correctly and 20+ of them fell over in rough seas though, so insurance wouldn’t be a bad idea.
If the ship went directly from China to LA it would take about 2 weeks. However most ships will stop at numerous ports before reaching LA. ALL container ships I have been on will take about 12 to 15 days to get the the far east and then spend about 2 weeks making stops in places like Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, before spending 12 to 15 days heading back to the states. Then it will usually stop in Seattle or Oakland before making it to LA. This is why you cant get a straight answer. This is of course dependent on good weather. This time of year the Pacific can be pretty nasty.
x exact time