When importing from China, there’s a big chance you will ship from Shenzhen. Shenzhen is China’s largest export city.

There are hundreds of thousands of manufacturers in and around Shenzhen (e.g. Dongguan, Huizhou, Zhongshan, Zhuhai), producing machinery, electronics, watches, furniture, clothing, home appliances, lamps, hardware, toys, plastics, home furnishings, etc.

Shenzhen Introduction

Shenzhen is a coastal city in South China.

It is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of Guangdong, bordering Hong Kong to the south, Dongguan to the north, Huizhou to the northeast, and Macau to the southwest.

Shenzhen turned into a city from town in 1979.

Back to April 1979, Shenzhen was reformed as a Special Export Zone to create a favorable investment environment and introduce advanced technology and management experience, later renamed to Special Economic Zone in May 1980.

It’s the first special economic zone of China due to its close proximity to Hong Kong, attracting foreign direct investment. It is an early and pilot implementation zone under the country’s reform, opening up and modernisation.

From 1980 the city grew at a phenomenal rate, as a tremendous amount of both domestic and foreign capital was invested there. The rapid growth rate in the region became known in China as “Shenzhen speed”.

As China’s Silicon Valley, the city’s entrepreneurial, innovative, and competitive-based culture has resulted in the city being home to numerous manufacturers. Several of these firms have become large technology corporations, such as Huawei, BYD, and DJI.

Over the past 40 years, Shenzhen has developed from a backward border town into a modern international metropolis, creating a miracle in the history of world development.

Shenzhen Economy

Shenzhen’s export volume has ranked No. 1 among Chinese cities for many years.

From the perspective of commodity structure, Shenzhen’s export commodities have shifted from labor-intensive products such as primary consumer goods and light textiles to electromechanical products and high-tech products.

Shenzhen has 20 strategic emerging industry clusters with advanced manufacturing as the main body + 8 future industry directions.

20 industry clusters:

• Network and communication
• Semiconductors and integrated circuits
• UHD video display
• Smart terminal
• Smart sensor
• Software and information services
• Artificial intelligence
• Digital creativity
• Modern fashion
• High-end equipment and instruments
• Low-altitude economy and aerospace
• Robots
• New energy
• Safety, energy saving and environmental protection
• Intelligent networked vehicles
• High-performance materials
• Biomedicine
• High-end medical devices
• Big health
• Ocean

8 future industries:

• Synthetic biology
• Light-carrying information
• Intelligent robots
• Cells and genes
• Brain science and brain-computer engineering
• Deep earth and deep sea
• Quantum information
• Frontier new materials

10 Shenzhen companies are listed in the Fortune Global 500.

Shenzhen took the lead in launching a carbon market pilot and established the most complete carbon trading regulatory system in China.

Shenzhen is the city with the largest number of Amazon sellers in the world.

Sea Freight from Shenzhen Port

The port is important infrastructure supporting the economy. Shenzhen Port has developed from a small fishing port to a global container hub.

Shenzhen has a sea area of ​​1,145 square kilometers and a coastline of 260.5 kilometers. Totally 164 berths of various types, including 47 dedicated container berths.

Its international routes connect to more than 300 ports around the world. The throughput in 2024 is 33.38 million TEUs.

Shenzhen is part of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road that runs from the Chinese coast south to the tip of India via the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean, there to the Upper Adriatic region to the northern Italian hub of Trieste with its rail connections to Central Europe and the North Sea.

The large Shenzhen Port consists of seven port areas:

• East: Xiaomo Port
• Central: Yantian Port, Dapeng Port
• West: Nanshan Port, Dachan Bay Port, Dachan Island Port, Baoan Port

Xiaomo Port

It mainly develops functions such as containers, bulk cargo, and ocean fishing, carries out roll-on/roll-off transportation of commercial vehicles, and creates a growth pole in the east of Shenzhen.

Yantian Port

As an important node in the global supply chain, Yantian Port Area handles more than one-third of Guangdong Province’s foreign trade imports and exports and more than a quarter of the country’s exports to the United States.

Yantian has 20 large deep-water container berths, which provide a natural waterway for all-weather, two-way navigation for 200,000-ton ships. As the preferred port for ultra-large ships, many liner companies use Yantian Port as the last port of call for their European and American routes, as well as the port of call for routes in Latin America, Australia and New Zealand, and Asia.

Dapeng Port

It mainly handles the unloading of imported LNG, and expands its functions such as LNG transshipment, refueling and supply, and bonded services, while also taking into account the storage and transportation of oil products.

Nanshan Port

It is the core port area for container transportation, focusing on the development of modern logistics, and has the functions of cruise, passenger, bulk cargo transportation and ship building & repair.

Dachan Bay Port

It is the core port area for container transportation, taking into account domestic and foreign trade transportation services, ocean fishing and other functions, and carrying out roll-on/roll-off transportation of commercial vehicles.

Dachan Island Port

It mainly transports refined oil and liquid chemicals.

Baoan Port

Focus on bulk cargo transportation and passenger transportation, and moderately develop container barge transportation.

Shenzhen Port is the last port of call for most routes leaving China. With hundreds of routes reaching the world every week, it can ensure that goods are delivered to the destination port as quickly as possible, such as 12 days to the United States and 11 days to Australia. On average, there are 4 large vessels to Europe and 6 large vessels to the United States every day.

Air Freight from Shenzhen Airport

Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport – SZX is the first modern international airport in China to realize sea, land and air combined transportation. It is also one of China’s twelve major trunk airports and one of China’s four major air cargo centers and express distribution centers.

In 2024, the passenger throughput reached 61.477 million; the cargo and mail throughput reached 1.881 million tons; and the number of flight take-offs and landings reached 428,000.

Shenzhen Airport has three overseas cargo terminals:

• Budapest in Hungary
• Frankfurt in Germany
• Mexico City in Mexico

Shenzhen Airport has 60 domestic and international cargo flight routes, including 38 international and regional cargo flight routes, covering major global air cargo hubs such as Los Angeles, Chicago, Frankfurt, Paris, London, Liege, and Budapest, and is connected with the world’s million-ton large hub airports, covering five continents and 26 countries and regions.

It has basically achieved the goal of delivering domestic goods originating from Shenzhen within 1 day, international goods to major cities in Asia within 2 days at the fastest, and to other major cities in the world within 3 days at the fastest.

The Shenzhen-Mexico City route is 14,147 kilometers long, surpassing the 12,878 kilometers of the Guangzhou-New York route, becoming China’s longest international route.

Rail Freight from Shenzhen Station

On August 18, 2020, the first train of the “Bay Area Express” departed from Pinghu, Shenzhen, and headed for Duisburg, Germany.

In 2023, the Shenzhen-Europe Express “Bay Area Express” started operating premium trains, providing more efficient and stable train transportation services for high-value goods such as high-end electronic products and e-commerce goods. Compared with the average transit time of the “Bay Area Express” conventional China-Europe train, it’s 41% shorter, and will also launch LCL products, e-commerce train products and other services.

From the initial one train per week to the current three trains per week, the number of routes has increased from 1 to 18, and the transportation network covers Russia, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Italy, Laos, Thailand, Belarus and other countries.

Truckload Freight and LTL from Shenzhen

The Convention on International Transport of Goods Under Cover of TIR Carnets (TIR Convention) is a multilateral treaty to simplify and harmonise the administrative formalities of international road transport.

TIR Convention has a convenient mechanism of one declaration, one certificate and one direct vehicle.

Truckload from Shenzhen through TIR can reduce the road transportation from Shenzhen to Almaty to 6 days, which is 1/2 of the railway; the price is slightly more expensive than the railway, but only 1/4 of the air transportation.

Shenzhen Customs can achieve fast customs clearance of TIR goods within 2 hours through innovative measures such as “7×24-hour appointment clearance” and “intelligent inspection and release”.

For example, when going to Europe, TIR strikes the best balance between time efficiency and cost: compared with air transport, TIR is slightly slower, but the price is only 1/4 of that; compared with 45 days for sea transport and 30 days for rail transport, TIR takes 15 days and the price is close to that of rail transport.

TIR, a safe, efficient, door-to-door transport mode, will complement the China-Europe Express, sea transport, and air transport, and help Shenzhen complete the road freight link in the land + sea + air + rail complete international logistics network.

Working with CFC

When shipping from Shenzhen China, CFC provides one-stop supply chain solutions to meet your unique logistics requirements. Enjoy hassle-free process, competitive rates for your popular freight routes, and reliable transit times from China to your desired destination.

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