Sea freight from Guangzhou to Singapore, from our Baiyun warehouse

1Why Guangzhou to Singapore shipping starts at our warehouse

Every new sea booking with us starts at one place: our warehouse in Jianggao Town, Baiyun District, in the north of Guangzhou, near Foshan. Your suppliers deliver to it, we receive and count the cartons, and from there we take care of the rest: trucking to the port, the sailing, the Singapore import permit, customs clearance and delivery to your address.

If your suppliers are in Guangzhou, that makes the first step short. A factory in Baiyun or Huadu, a workshop in Panyu or Zengcheng, or a stall in one of the city's wholesale markets is a local delivery away, not a long-distance one. Suppliers elsewhere in China deliver to the same warehouse, and the price from the warehouse to your door is the same whoever sends the cartons; the guide to shipping from China to Singapore covers the whole route, air included.

Shiplet is an agent that books your cargo onto carriers, not a carrier, and we work one route only: China to Singapore, by sea and by air.

2Our Guangzhou warehouse: address, hours and cut-off

Give your supplier the Chinese address exactly as it appears below; it is the version their driver or courier needs. The English line is for your own records.

The warehouse is open on Sundays, which matters more in Guangzhou than you might think. Plenty of suppliers deliver at the weekend, and a van that arrives on Sunday is received rather than turned away. A Sunday delivery makes Monday's cut-off. Always use the address on your own booking confirmation: it is the one your marking code belongs to.

3Getting goods from Guangzhou suppliers to the warehouse

The leg from your supplier to our warehouse is a delivery inside China. Your supplier arranges it, or you arrange it with them, and it is not part of our rate; many suppliers include it, especially within the city. Inside Guangzhou this is usually a van, and a delivery booked in the morning typically arrives the same day or the next.

If a supplier will not deliver at all, we can collect from them; the pickup is quoted separately, and China domestic delivery explains how those trips are priced and paid.

Buying in Guangzhou's wholesale markets

Guangzhou's markets are where many Singapore shop owners buy in person: clothing around Shisanhang and Baima, toys and stationery on Yide Road, leather goods and bags in Shiling in Huadu, denim in Xintang in Zengcheng. Buying from five stalls in a day is normal, and each stall can send its cartons to our warehouse with a local van or courier. Hand each one the Chinese address and your marking code, and keep every receipt showing what you bought, how many and what you paid. Your commercial invoice is built from those figures, and the value declared must be the real one.

Marking your cartons

Your booking confirmation gives you a marking code, SG/SHIPLET/ followed by four characters, for that booking only. Ask every supplier to write it on every carton with the carton number (1/12, 2/12 and so on), so the warehouse can match a delivery to your booking the moment it arrives. On a courier parcel from a 1688 or Taobao seller, put the code in the recipient name as well. When cartons from several stalls arrive on one van, the code is the only thing that tells them apart.

4What sea freight from Guangzhou to Singapore costs

Sea LCL from our Guangzhou warehouse is S$85 per CBM, hub to door, with a minimum of 1 CBM, so a smaller shipment is billed at S$85. Heavy cargo is charged on the greater of its volume and its weight at 500 kg per CBM. One delivery lorry takes 20 CBM; a single shipment above that pays S$300 for each further 20 CBM or part of it. To turn your cartons into a CBM figure, use the CBM calculator.

It is an all-in price for the freight. Inside the per-CBM figure:

• Receiving and carton check at the Guangzhou warehouse, sorting and consolidation
• Trucking from the warehouse to the port, port charges and document fees
• Ocean freight to Singapore
• The Singapore import permit and customs clearance, lodged by us as Declaring Agent
• Delivery to your Singapore address, and cargo cover at declared invoice value
• 5 days' storage at the Guangzhou warehouse

On top: GST at 9% on the import value and any duty, the supplier's delivery to the warehouse, storage beyond 5 days, and special handling such as stairs, timed delivery or unpacking. The pricing page lists every rate in one place, and the sea freight guide works through a full example from cartons to cost.

5Several Guangzhou suppliers, one shipment

Most buyers in Guangzhou use more than one supplier. Each one delivers to the warehouse; we receive each delivery, count the cartons against your packing list and tell you if the numbers do not match, while the supplier is still a phone call away. Earlier cartons wait free for 5 days while the rest arrive, then everything ships as one consignment, under one permit, with one Singapore delivery and one invoice.

Because Guangzhou suppliers are so close to the warehouse, lining them up is easier than it is with suppliers spread across China. Ask them all to deliver within a few days of each other: the transit clock starts when the last carton is in, and storage beyond the free 5 days costs S$20 per CBM per day. The warehouse merges orders from any number of shops and stacks them neatly in the suppliers' own packaging as part of the rate; complete repacking is extra, on request.

6Transit time, departures and the port

Sea freight from Guangzhou takes 10–16 days hub to door: from the day your cargo leaves our warehouse to the day it reaches your Singapore address, with the permit and clearance done inside that window. Departures run Monday to Saturday. Chinese New Year, typhoon season and a customs inspection can add days; the transit times guide shows the next departure, the cut-off and the ETA worked out for today.

Guangzhou's port has container terminals at Nansha, in the south of the city, and at Huangpu, in the east. You do not need to arrange anything at either: trucking from the warehouse to the port and the port charges are in the rate, and the transit time we give is counted hub to door, whichever terminal the ship leaves from.

7Full containers from Guangzhou

If your order fills a 20-foot, 40-foot or 40-foot high cube container on its own, a full container (FCL) is quoted per booking, because carrier rates move weekly and a printed price would soon be wrong. Tell us the container size, the goods, where they are in Guangzhou and when they are ready. The confirmed quote follows in writing within a few hours, priced on the day's carrier rate, with the loading arrangement set out. Transit is 10–14 days hub to door, and the permit, clearance and Singapore delivery are part of the job. The LCL vs FCL guide helps you decide which suits your volume.

8Need it sooner? Air goes from Shenzhen

Air cargo does not go through Guangzhou. A Guangzhou supplier sending by air delivers to our air freight warehouse in Shenzhen, which receives Mon–Sat, 8:00am – 5:00pm and is closed on Sundays and public holidays. Air is from S$6.50 per kg, 3–5 days hub to door, charged on the greater of actual and volumetric weight. Storage there is confirmed when you book. The air freight guide has the address and the details.

9GST, documents and payment

Two documents cover almost every shipment: a commercial invoice and a packing list. GST at 9% is charged on the import value, which Singapore Customs takes as the cost of the goods plus insurance and freight. We lodge the permit as Registered Declaring Agent, pay the GST at clearance and pass it through at cost. The GST and customs clearance guide explains it step by step.

You pay when your cargo reaches Singapore, before we deliver it, by PayNow or bank transfer: the freight and the GST together. No card details and no deposit.

10Getting a quote for Guangzhou to Singapore

Send the carton sizes and count through the quote form to get an instant quote from the published rate and a reference number straight away. Our team checks the details and sends the confirmed quote in writing within a few hours. Nothing is booked and nothing is payable until you accept it. If you would rather ask first, WhatsApp +65 8162 1037 or email info@empiricalmarine.com; we answer every day, 9:00am to 6:00pm Singapore time.

Shiplet has moved 140,000+ CBM across 9,000+ shipments from China to Singapore. It is a freight-forwarding brand of Empirical Marine and Trading Pte. Limited, UEN 202418701E, a Registered Declaring Agent with Singapore Customs.