Freight Forwarder from China to Australia

Operating from our Qingdao Port headquarters, Great Hensen shipping from China to Australia is a high-frequency, well-established trade lane. Australia is China's largest trading partner in Oceania, and the route benefits from direct carrier services with short transit times. Great Hensen handles FCL, LCL, air freight, and DDP door-to-door shipments to every major Australian port, including DG cargo (IMDG classes 2-9) and OOG project cargo. For DG freight specifics, see our dangerous goods freight service.

Port Options

We ship from three primary Chinese load ports, with weekly sailings on all major carriers.

Departure Ports (China)

• Shanghai: The primary gateway for Australian imports. Largest vessel capacity and most frequent sailings to all Australian ports. Typical cut-off 2 days before ETD.
• Qingdao: Our headquarters port. Direct services to Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane with MSK, COSCO, and OOCL. Ideal for northern China shippers in Shandong, Hebei, and Liaoning provinces.
• Tianjin: Serves Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei industrial region. Slightly longer transit (add 2-3 days vs Shanghai) due to northern routing.

Arrival Ports (Australia)

• Sydney (Port Botany): The largest container port in Australia. Handles approximately 2.7 million TEU annually. Primary gateway for New South Wales.
• Melbourne: Australia's busiest port by container volume. Serves Victoria and provides rail connections to Adelaide.
• Brisbane: Primary gateway for Queensland. Also a key entry point for agricultural and mining equipment imports.
• Fremantle (Perth): Serves Western Australia. Longer transit (18-22 days) but direct services available from Shanghai.

Shipping methods and transit times

Sea Freight

• Shanghai/Qingdao to Sydney (Port Botany): 14-18 days. MSK, COSCO, OOCL, and CMA CGM offer weekly direct services.
• Shanghai/Qingdao to Melbourne: 15-20 days. All major carriers serve this port pair.
• Shanghai to Brisbane: 16-20 days. Slightly longer due to routing along the Queensland coast.
• Shanghai to Fremantle (Perth): 18-22 days. Direct service with fewer weekly sailings; transshipment via Singapore is a common alternative.

FCL and LCL Options

• FCL (Full Container Load): 20ft, 40ft, and 40ft high-cube containers. Best for shipments over 15 CBM. Flat rack and open top containers available for OOG and heavy-lift cargo.
• LCL (Less than Container Load): Weekly consolidated containers to Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. Cost-effective for shipments under 15 CBM. Our LCL shipping service includes deconsolidation and delivery at destination.

Air Freight

• PVG (Shanghai Pudong) to SYD: 3-5 days door-to-door. Daily direct flights on major carriers.
• CAN (Guangzhou Baiyun) to MEL: 3-5 days. Strong capacity due to southern China manufacturing connections.
• PVG/CAN to BNE: 3-5 days. Some routings require a transit stop in SYD or MEL.

DDP Door-to-Door

Our DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) service covers the complete chain: origin pick-up in China, ocean or air freight, Australian customs clearance, GST payment (10%), biosecurity inspection, and last-mile trucking to the consignee's address. DDP is available to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, and regional cities. We handle the import declaration as the registered importer of record, so the Australian buyer receives the goods without dealing with customs or quarantine formalities.

Customs and Documentation

The Australian Border Force (ABF) handles customs clearance for all imports. Key requirements and rules:

• Formal customs entry: Required for goods valued over AUD 1,000. Below AUD 1,000, a self-assessed clearance (SAC) declaration may be used for low-value shipments.
• GST (Goods and Services Tax): 10% is applied to the customs value plus freight and insurance (CIF basis). GST is collected by the ABF at the time of import and is included in our DDP service.
• Biosecurity inspection: Australia's Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) inspects imports for biosecurity risk. This is not optional -- all containers are subject to screening. High-risk goods (timber products, food, used machinery, vehicles) face mandatory inspection and possible treatment or cleaning at the importer's cost.
• ISPM 15 (timber packaging): All solid wood packaging materials (pallets, crates, dunnage) must be heat-treated and stamped with the IPPC mark. Non-compliant packaging will be seized, destroyed, or re-exported at the importer's expense.
• Fumigation: May be required for goods containing plant material, bamboo, rattan, or untreated timber. We coordinate fumigation in China before the container ships to avoid delays at the Australian border.

Cargo types we handle

• Standard FCL/LCL: General cargo, consumer goods, industrial equipment, building materials. Weekly consolidated containers to all major Australian cities.
• Dangerous Goods (DG): IMDG classes 2-9 including lithium batteries (UN3480/UN3481), chemicals, paints, and industrial gases. Full DG documentation package: MSDS, DG Packaging Certificate, Maritime DG Declaration. More on DG freight →
• OOG and Heavy-Lift / Breakbulk: Flat rack containers, open top containers, and breakbulk for machinery, steel structures, and project cargo exceeding standard container dimensions. Lashing plans and securing schemes per vessel requirements. More on project cargo →
• Project Cargo: Mining equipment, construction machinery, wind turbine components, and factory relocation shipments. Our case studies include heavy equipment shipments on flat racks and factory relocations to Southeast Asia using similar processes applicable to Australia.

Carriers and Schedules

All major carriers serving the Asia-Oceania trade lane operate direct services from Shanghai and Qingdao. Great Hensen maintains contract rates with MSK, HPL, MSC, COSCO, OOCL, and CMA CGM on this route. Weekly departures are standard from Shanghai; Qingdao sailings are 2-3 per week depending on the carrier. Peak season surcharges typically apply from August through October (Australian holiday retail imports) and from December through February (back-to-school and construction season).

Australia has some of the strictest biosecurity regimes in the world. We pre-check packaging compliance at origin -- verifying ISPM 15 stamps, checking for bark or pest contamination on timber, and arranging fumigation when required -- before the container is loaded. This prevents costly inspection delays and cleaning fees at Australian ports. The 14-20 day transit from Shanghai to Sydney makes this one of the fastest sea freight routes from China to any OECD market, comparable to the China-US West Coast lane but with fewer congestion risks at the destination port.

DAFF biosecurity is the choke point every China-Australia shipment must pass through. All containers are screened on arrival. High-risk commodities -- timber products, used machinery, vehicles, food ingredients, seeds, and any goods with plant or animal material -- face mandatory inspection by DAFF officers. Containers found with soil contamination, live insects, bark on timber, or non-compliant wood packaging are directed to a wash bay or fumigation facility at the importer's expense. Inspection fees start at roughly AUD 190 for a standard container examination and escalate if treatment is required. The most common cause of DAFF intervention is ISPM 15 non-compliance on pallets and crates. We verify every piece of timber packaging at the origin CFS before loading: ISPM 15 stamps must be legible on at least two opposite sides, timber must be bark-free, and any previous treatment marks must be current (certificates older than 12 months are not accepted).

Port of Melbourne handles roughly 3 million TEU annually and is the natural entry point for Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania. Sydney's Port Botany handles approximately 2.7 million TEU and serves New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory. Brisbane is the primary gateway for Queensland and is frequently used for mining equipment imports routed to the Bowen Basin and Galilee Basin. For Western Australia, Fremantle handles roughly 800,000 TEU annually but has fewer direct sailings from China -- many Fremantle-bound containers transship through Singapore, adding 3-5 days to transit. We route based on the importer's DC location: Melbourne for national distribution centres in the southeast corridor, Sydney for NSW/ACT, Brisbane for Queensland, and Fremantle for WA mining and resources sector deliveries.

See also our freight services to UAE and USA. For trans-Tasman distribution from Australian ports, containers can be cross-docked at Sydney or Melbourne and transshipped to Auckland, Wellington, or Christchurch via coastal feeder services with 5-8 day additional transit.

Departure from Qingdao Port

All Australia-bound shipments are coordinated from our headquarters at Qingdao Port. Qingdao is China's 5th largest container port (22M+ TEU annually) and the primary export gateway for Shandong province's manufacturing sector. Direct Qingdao-to-Sydney/Melbourne services operate weekly, bypassing the congestion at Shanghai and Ningbo. We hold direct carrier contracts with MSK, COSCO, HPL, and CMA CGM for confirmed space on every sailing.

Frequently Asked Questions