Container port at dusk seen from above, gantry cranes and container stacks along the waterfront

Services

China to USA Freight Services

Six services on one trade lane. Each is quoted port-to-port or door-to-door — never mixed — and the duty layers are shown as a separate line rather than folded into a headline price.

Data last verified: Oct 16, 2026

The six ways cargo moves

The choice of mode is usually made for you by three facts: how much the shipment cubes out, how much it weighs, and what the value of a week of delay is. Everything after that is documentation.

Sea Freight (FCL)

20GP / 40HQ, USWC & USEC

Cargo that fills a 20GP or 40HQ on its own, where the container is sealed at origin and opened at your US warehouse.

Read the page

LCL & Consolidation

Per CBM, 15 CBM break-even

Shipments below container size, priced per revenue ton — volume and gross weight compared, the greater one billed.

Read the page

Air Freight

Chargeable weight, per kg

Goods whose margin or deadline cannot wait six weeks, priced on chargeable weight rather than packed volume alone.

Read the page

Door-to-Door

Pickup, entry, final delivery

Buyers who want one party accountable from the supplier loading dock to the delivery address, including entry and final mile.

Read the page

DDP — Duties Paid

Who pays the duty stack

Buyers who want the duty inside the price they are quoted — with a clear statement of who is importer of record.

Read the page

Amazon FBA First Leg

Labeling, pallets, appointments

Inventory going into a US fulfilment centre, where labelling, pallet spec and appointment slots decide whether the delivery is accepted.

Read the page

Which service fits this shipment

A starting point, not a rule. The break-even between two modes moves with the rate of the week, so treat the right-hand column as the question to ask rather than the answer.

Mode selection by shipment profile. Figures are the site's stated rules of thumb, not quotations.
Shipment profile	Usual starting point	What decides it
Fills a container on its own	FCL sea freight	Cost per container, not per CBM; discharge coast and inland rail determine the total.
Roughly 1–15 CBM	LCL consolidation	Revenue tons: CBM versus gross weight, whichever is greater, plus fixed per-shipment charges.
High value or a hard deadline	Air freight	Chargeable weight at 1 CBM = 167 kg; gateway routing and capacity in the weeks before peak.
No US entity, no broker of your own	Door-to-door	Whether entry, the bond and final mile sit inside the number you were given.
Duty must sit in the purchase price	DDP	Who is importer of record, and which duty layers the quoted price actually absorbs.
Selling on Amazon	FBA first leg	Label and pallet spec, shipment plan and appointment slots — acceptance is a compliance question.

The two numbers behind every mode

Whichever service you pick, the booking decision comes down to cost and transit — and both are unusually easy to misread on this lane. Two pages carry the detail:

Shipping cost from China to USA— what sits inside a rate, which charges arrive after booking, and how to compare two quotes on the same footing.
Shipping time from China to USA— port-to-port and door-to-door ranges by coast and inland gateway, with the assumptions written out.

Duty is a separate decision

On many consumer goods the 2026 duty is a larger number than the freight, and it is the line most quotes omit. The stack is additive and product-specific, so it has to be worked per HTS code rather than assumed per mode.

2026 US duty stack— every layer with its effective date and HTSUS Chapter 99 reference.
Import duty and landed cost calculators— estimators you can run before you ask us for a quote.

Choosing a service from China to the USA: common questions

What freight services do you run from China to the USA?

Six, all on the same trade lane: FCL sea freight in 20GP and 40HQ containers, LCL consolidation priced per revenue ton, air freight priced on chargeable weight, door-to-door delivery including entry and final mile, DDP shipping with duties inside the quoted price, and Amazon FBA first-leg delivery into US fulfilment centres.

Should I book port-to-port or door-to-door?

Port-to-port ends at the US discharge port: you or your own broker arrange terminal handling, entry, duty and inland delivery. Door-to-door adds pickup at origin, the entry, and delivery to a street address. They are different products and different numbers, so every quote we issue states which caliber it is on, with the date.

What is the difference between door-to-door and DDP?

Door-to-door is a scope of movement: from your supplier to your delivery address. DDP is a commercial term that also fixes who pays the duty and who is importer of record. A door-to-door quote that leaves duty out is not DDP, and it is the single most common mix-up in this lane.

How do I choose between LCL and air freight for a small shipment?

Compare the chargeable weight both ways before deciding. Air is billed on the greater of actual weight and volume weight at 1 CBM = 167 kg, while LCL compares the CBM against gross weight in metric tons and bills the greater. A light, bulky shipment pays the volumetric rate twice over, which is where the LCL-versus-air answer usually flips.

Can the same order use more than one service?

Yes, and it is common. Part of an order can go by sea on the order date while a first allocation goes by air to cover launch, or FBA inventory can ship LCL until volumes justify a container. Each leg is quoted separately because each has its own caliber, and mixing them into one headline number hides exactly the difference you need to see.

Tell us what the shipment is — we will tell you which mode it belongs in

Send the origin city, the delivery ZIP, the volume or weight, and the HTS code if you have one. We come back with the modes that fit, each quoted port-to-port and door-to-door with the date on it.

Request a quote WhatsApp us