Navigate Imports with Ease: Shipping from China to the US

1. Sea Freight from China to the USA

Sea freight from China to the United States involves more than negotiating the rates and building relationships with the locals. Port familiarity is important when shipping. There are many ports in the United States and China and they vary in locale, type, and size. Here are the ports.

Sea Ports in China

· Tianjin Port

Currently, Tianjin stands as the largest seaport in northern China. It serves 11 Northern provinces of China and Mongolia. Formerly known as the Port of Tangu, this port is the primary marine gateway to Beijing. It covers over 100 square kilometers, something that makes it China’s largest man-made seaport and one of the highly connected seaports. It serves as a link between Central, Northeast, and West Asia.

Tianjin Port is among the earliest foreign trading ports of China and its roots can be traced back to the Han Dynasty. Today, this port connects more than 160 regions and over 300 ports in the world.

· Qingdao Port

The port of Qingdao is an international transshipment. This port situated in the Yellow River basin in the eastern part of Shandong Province handled over 17.44 million TEUs in 2016. Qingdao Port has a large terminal apt that handles iron ore and the government is planning to make it the largest terminal in the world for handling iron ore. The port stands as the sixth port in the world when it comes to iron ore cargo handling and its shipping routes connect more than 700 ports.

· Shanghai Port

The Port of Shanghai handled over 40 million TEUs in 2017, something that helped it cement its spot as the busiest port in the world. Singapore ranked second but it handled 33.7 TEUs.

This port is the Yangtze River Delta gateway. Around 40 years ago, its capacity was below 8,000 TEUs and crossed the 30 million TEUs mark in 2011. Currently, it is the home to the largest automated container terminal in the world.

· Ningbo Port

Ningbo Port was the first to handle 1 billion tons of cargo in one year. That is mainly due to its ore-loading berth and crude oil terminal. It also offers a liquid chemical storage space.

The port is located in Zhejiang Province, and it has seen much advancement recently. Originally, it was offering intermodal rail services to hinterlands but it has launched new services with sea-rail transport lines that offer 11 train services to over 36 China’s cities and reach further to northern Asia, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe.

It also lies at the crossroads of the 21^st Century Maritime Silk Road and Silk Road Economic Belt, meaning that it is among the busiest ports in the country. Further, it has 242 sea routes that connect to more than 600 harbors in the world.

· Xiamen Port

Situated in Jiulongjiang River in Fujian Province, Xiamen Port is the closest port to Taiwan. It was the first mainland port to start shipping cargo to Kaohsiung Port of Taiwan. Today, it is still offering cross-strait trade.

This port is spread over 12 areas and stretches around 30 kilometers along the coast. Furthermore, it has both deep-water and river facilities and it serves over 65 routes. It also connects more than 50 countries across the world.

· Shenzhen Port

The Port of Shenzhen is situated in Guangdong Province and it connects the southern hinterland of China to other parts of the globe. Also known as the gateway to Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta, this port handled over 23.98 million TEUs in the year 2016. It consists of the western and eastern ports and it spreads out over 260km of Shenzhen’s coastline.

The port receives 560 ships per month and it covers 130 international container routes. Companies like Wal-Mart have established their Asian headquarters here. The city is also home to thousands of electronics manufacturers.

· Guangzhou Port

Port of Guangzhou is situated at the mouth of Pearl River in Guangdong Province. It is very close to Macau and Hong Kong and it is the main port in China’s Pearl River Delta. This port mainly handles industrial, manufactured, and agricultural goods. In 2016, the port handled over 17.56 million TEUs.

Cargoes from provinces like Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Jiangxi, and Guangxi also pass through this port. Furthermore, the port sits at the conflux of the Xijiang, Dongjiang, and Beijing Rivers, which are equipped with an expressway, waterway, railway, and air services. Guangzhou Port is among the busiest ports in China and it connects over 300 ports in 80 different countries.

· Hongkong

This port was once the largest in the world but it has been reporting weaker traffic recently. Analysts believe that it might lose its position in the list of the five leading ports in the world if the trend persists. The port handled over 20 million TEUs in 2016.

Main Sea Port in the USA

– Long Beach Port

The Long Beach Port is around 30 kilometers from Los Angeles Port. This port began its operations in 1911 and today it is among the leading gateways for North America and Asia. Even more, the port was among the first ports in the United States to adopt eco-friendly policies to minimize its effects on the environment. It occupies 3200 acres and handles over 78.2 million metric revenue tons per year. It also employs over 370,000 people directly and indirectly.

– New York Port

The New York Port is the biggest on East Coast. It encompasses waterways in the New York and New Jersey Estuary and has two foreign-trade zones. It handles 7.4 million TEUs container volumes. The annual cargo tonnage stands at 74 million metric revenue tons. It connects the United States to India, China, and Germany.

– Los Angeles Port

Los Angeles Port is also known as America’s Port and it stands at the largest seaport in North America. This port lies on 7500 acres and it handles over 20 percent of the cargo incoming to the USA. In 2019, its container volume was over 9.3 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in the year 2019. That was a 5.5 increase from the 8.8 million TEUs in 2018. The port connects the United States to Hong Kong, China, South Korea, and Japan. It employs over 1.6 million individuals both directly and indirectly.

– Oakland Port

The first container ship terminals were built in this port. Situated on the Pacific Coast, the Port of Oakland is among the West Coast gateways. It handles over 99 percent of the containerized goods that pass through Northern California. It receives over 1775 vessels per year and handles 2.5 million TEUs. It connects the United States to Asia.

– Houston Port

The Port of Houston is the busiest in the United States, considering the foreign waterborne tonnage. The 50-mile-long port has more than 200 private and public terminals. Port of Houston is the largest port on Gulf Coast and handles 50 percent of the region’s project cargo. NeoPanamax expansion is among its focus areas. It receives over 8200 vessels and 247 million metric revenue tons per year. Its annual cargo stands at 1.6 million TEUs and its main petroleum and petroleum products. Further, the port employs 3.2 million people directly and indirectly.

– Tacoma Port

The Port of Tacoma is the third-largest port in terms of cargo handling in the United States. The port handled around $9.7 billion of business in the year 2017 and modernized its Terminal 5 in 2019. It handles 3.7 million TEUs per year and employs 151,400 people directly and indirectly. The port mainly handles grains, oilseeds, computers, and machinery.

– Newark Port

Port Newark has four container terminals and it handled over 6.5 million TEUs and over 600,000 automobiles in 2016. Also known as Port Elizabeth, Port Newark serves the Port of New York and New Jersey. It serves as the principal container facility for goods leaving and entering the New York Metropolitan Area. Around 80-85 percent of cargo from this port goes onto trucks.