China to South Korea freight rates and market updates — dated log 2026

The 40ft and 40HQ quotations we logged to Busan in July to September 2026 ranged from USD 330 per container across 1 quotation. A 40ft high cube carries roughly twice the volume of a 20GP for well under twice the freight, so once your cargo passes about 28 CBM the 40HQ is normally the cheaper unit per cubic metre.

Typical port-to-port sailing time from South China is 5 to 12 days; add three to seven days if the cargo loads in North China. Direct services beat transhipment routings by one to two weeks, and schedule reliability, blank sailings and port congestion all move the date. We confirm the actual ETD and ETA against your booking rather than quoting a standard transit time.

Ocean and rail figures are the port-to-port (or terminal-to-terminal) freight only. They exclude origin handling, export customs, THC and CFS, documentation, destination THC, import duty and final delivery, unless the row names a door-to-door or DDP service. Air figures are airport-to-airport per chargeable kilo and exclude pick-up and delivery. Every figure is indicative until it is confirmed against a specific vessel, flight or train and a cargo ready date.

Yes. LCL groupage is charged per revenue tonne (1 CBM or 1,000 kg, with volume weight taken if it is greater) plus fixed documentation and CFS charges, so it is usually the better option below roughly 15 CBM. Above that a 20GP starts to win on cost per cubic metre. Give us the volume, weight and cargo readiness and we will price both side by side for South Korea.

Import duty, VAT/GST and any destination port charges are assessed by the customs authority in South Korea and are payable by the importer of record, not included in the freight rates on this page. Where we quote a DDP service the duty and tax are absorbed into the per-kilo or per-container price and shown separately on the invoice. We can arrange a landed-cost estimate before you ship if you tell us the HS code, the declared value and the delivery address.

Send the commodity, gross weight, volume, the pick-up city in China and the delivery address in South Korea to sales007@goodhopefreight.com. We reply with the applicable service, the named vessel, flight or train, the cut-off and an all-in cost, usually the same working day. If you are weighing up routes, tell us the ready date and we will price sea, rail and air side by side.