The concept of commerce or trade was limited at the start, but now, the new era of global trade has a relatively mature value and supply chain since before. In recent times, China has been recognized as an emerging global superpower.
In a similar vein, UAE has become the main targeting hub with the world’s largest airport and logistics. It has been the logistics and re-export hub for the entire Middle East.
This guide will give you pivotal assistance for exporting your goods from China to UAE, different modes of transportation, cost, transit time, customs clearance in UAE, and major seaports and airports of both countries.
Okay! I know what you are thinking. You have some questions in your mind regarding shipping from China to the UAE. So. Let’s move on to this.
Table of Contents
When it comes to moving cargo from point A to point B, most people aren’t aware of shipping their goods when asked about the shipping mode.
For this purpose, there are different types of modes of transportation for import and export goods. It could be air, land, sea, or railway. All these modes of transportation take cargo and deliver it to its final destination. It all depends on how much time you have, the type of goods, and your budget as well.
Shipping from China to UAE, you have only two options here:
In this case, you need to know about FCL and LCL, refer to the main modes of container shipment.
FCL: Full container loads books by one shipper under one shipment or part of a shipment from China to UAE. It has many advantages:
Containers are a handy way of transporting cargo to offshore subsidiaries.
They come in different sizes and dimensions like 20’ and 40’ foot containers.
LCL: Less than container load involves multiple shipper’s goods packed together. It allows you to maintain less quantity and more adaptable product inventory and is also suitable for both small packages or large cargo from China to UAE.
The benefit you can get with LCL is that you don’t have to wait to fill the whole container, but you don’t decide which type of cargo you share.
In case of urgency, You need to ship your cargo by air because it would be the best option, but you must be ready to collect a large bill for this fast and convenient service. Air cargo is transported on various types of aircraft such as passenger planes, cargo planes, aircraft charter, freighter, or helicopters.
It all depends on your requirements and the nature of goods you want to ship such as perishable goods that need reefer containers or refrigeration. The factors mentioned below can affect the cost of the shipment:
You need to know this fact, air freight charges by weight and size of the shipment while in ocean freight, weight is not the big deal.
It could be explained better by this chart:
Mode | Weight | Unit price | Total |
Sea | 28,000 kg | 2850/40HC | 2850 |
Air | 28,000 kg | $7/Kg | 7*28,000 |
Now, you know how cost affects when weight increases. When you pick air freight, it may assist you in calculating your air cargo cost.
On the other hand, a full standard container(20’ x 40’) is charged at a flat rate, and LCL is billed by cubic meters in ocean freight.
These are initial costs, actual costs will be calculated with inventory cost and warehouse fees, etc. This will be more expensive than the warehousing costs at the airport.
Remember, both modes of shipment will face customs procedures and destination fees when shipping internationally.
Air shipping is by far faster than sea shipping. As we know that sea freight takes weeks to arrive. On the other hand, airfreight goes fast to its destination but only a day or two in a week. Ocean freight can’t beat the speed in this case. The rates charged by different forwarders vary considerably.
Ocean Shipping is the right way of moving a huge volume of goods from China to the UAE. It is a cost-effective option as compared to airfreight. We can see that freight ships to China to the UAE :
By Air, → It takes 3-4 days
By Sea, → It takes 23- 30 days
In case of emergency or urgent delivery, your choice would be air freight because it’s faster, reliable, and secure than ocean freight.
In the table below, we mentioned the details of average transit time(in days) from China ports to the UAE.
Origin | Dubai | Sharjah | Abu Dhabi |
Port of Shanghai | 28 | 28 | 28 |
Port of Guangzhou | 24 | 24 | 25 |
Port of Xiamen | 25 | 26 | — |
Port of Qingdao | 29 | 29 | 30 |
Port of Shekou | 24 | 24 | 25 |
Port of Ningbo | 27 | 27 | 28 |
Port of Chung Ching | 31 | 31 | 32 |
Port of Zhongshan | 24 | 24 | 24 |
Port of Chiwan | 23 | 23 | 24 |
Port of Wuhan | 29 | 29 | 30 |
Nansha Port | 24 | 24 | 25 |
Port of Jiangyin | 28 | 28 | 29 |
Huangpu Xingang Port | 24 | 24 | 25 |
Port of Fuzhou | 26 | 26 | 27 |
Port of Lianyungang | 29 | 29 | 30 |
Origin | Dubai | Abu Dhabi | Sharjah |
Shanghai | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 |
Guangzhou | 1-2 | 1-2 | 1-2 |
Beijing | 1-4 | 1-4 | 1-4 |
Shenzhen | 1-3 | 1-3 | 1-3 |
Yiwu | 1-4 | 1-4 | 1-4 |
The above table mentioned the air freight average transit time in days from China to the UAE.
Following seaports in China ranked according to their traffic in terms of shipments in million tons and containers.
Port of Shanghai
Port of Shenzhen
Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan
Port of Guangzhou
Port of Hongkong
List of some major airports in China are:
Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK)
Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)
Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN)
Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTO)
Kunming Changshui International Airport (KMG)
Some major Seaports in UAE are:
Port Of Jebel Ali, Dubai
Port of Mina Zayed, Abu Dhabi
Port of Mina Rashid, Dubai
Port of Mina Khalid, Sharjah
Port Khalifa
There are 9 airports in the UAE and some major airports are listed below:
Dubai International Airport (DXB)
Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH)
Sharjah International Airport (SHJ)
Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC)
Customs Clearance is the process that allows shippers to export and import goods from and to transformed into two ways:
Custom clearance is mandatory in the freight shipping process. Rules and regulations are different for export and import. When you send shipments within your own business you would be an exporter or an importer.
Whereas, the seller takes the responsibility for the export customs clearance process while the buyer takes responsibility for the import customs clearance process.
Each country has its list of items permitted, restricted, and prohibited to import and export. Prohibited goods are those whose import or export is prohibited under the Common Customs Law, whereas restricted goods are those whose import or export is restricted under the Common Customs Law or any other regulation or law applicable in the State and may only be released with the approval of the competent authority.
To pass customs on an import cargo arriving at a seaport or airport in the UAE, you’ll need the following documents:
You can also Read the Full Guide Here
The following documentation is necessary for export cargo to a UAE seaport or airport:
Under shared customs legislation, the Federal Customs Authority (FCA) draughts customs rules for each emirate in the UAE.
No doubt, ocean freight is the better option than airfreight unless your product has short shelf lives. If it is not in a hurry or in any urgency, this option is economical and good for your budget.
You can go through all processes with any reliable freight forwarder, like local transportation, export clearance, customs clearance, freight cost, insurance, and document delivery process.
Keep these things in mind, what your budget is, take your goods to the final destination, and have flexibility in arrival dates? Then, you have to choose the right mode of transportation which fully matches your requirements.
We control your supply chain with all information on a dashboard, personalized just for your business. We have access to the best equipment to assist you with customized solutions for all types of commodities.
Our expert team will engage with you and understand what you are looking for to get shipped and help you with the best assistance at an economical cost.
Time is money, we save you both. Choose us, and we’ll get your products there.
The future depends on what you do today. Make the right move and let us help you move. Others strive to live up to the expectations we set. We consider logistics so that you don’t have to.
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