Le Havre Shipping Routes — Container Terminals, Transit Times & Shanghai → Le Havre vs Antwerp

Q: How long does it take to ship a container from Shanghai to Le Havre?

About 52.0 days door-to-door on a direct service (3.0 gate-in + 45.0 sailing + 4.0 gate-out).

Q: Is Shanghai to Le Havre faster than Shanghai to Antwerp?

Shanghai → Le Havre is about 2.0 days faster door-to-door (52.0 days to Le Havre vs 54.0 days to Antwerp).

Q: What is the typical transshipment dwell at the Port of Le Havre?

About 6.0 days typical (most containers between 3 and 9 days).

Q: Is transshipment faster at Le Havre or Antwerp?

Antwerp is about 1.0 days faster at the median. 6.0 days at Le Havre vs 5.0 days at Antwerp.

Q: What are typical transit times from Le Havre?

Door-to-door transit times for selected long-haul lanes from Le Havre: Le Havre to Singapore about 44 days door-to-door; Le Havre to Mundra about 55 days door-to-door; Le Havre to Montreal about 22 days door-to-door; Le Havre to Rio de Janeiro about 30 days door-to-door; Le Havre to Shanghai about 83 days door-to-door; Le Havre to Lome about 38 days door-to-door; Le Havre to Pointe Noire about 38 days door-to-door; Le Havre to New York about 20 days door-to-door.

We track container traffic at the Port of Le Havre across 6 named terminals. Below, the verified data: terminal layout, an interactive map of long-haul lanes touched by Le Havre, and a side-by-side comparison with Antwerp — direct Shanghai → Le Havre vs Shanghai → Antwerp transit time, plus transshipment dwell at each port.

Container Terminals

Tracked Berths

Trans-Oceanic Routes

9,868

Tracked Containers

Container Terminals at the Port of Le Havre

6 container terminals make up the Port of Le Havre in our records. For each terminal we publish only what we can verify directly from observed vessel calls: the largest draft and longest LOA we have recorded, the terminal's central coordinates, and the spatial distribution of tracked vessel positions on the map. We do not publish berth-level counts, since individual berths within a terminal cannot always be unambiguously separated from spatial Container Tracking data.

Trans-Oceanic Routes from Le Havre

Below are the long-haul shipping lanes (median transit ≥ 10 days) we have tracked from Le Havre. Le Havre is primarily a destination port on the Asia-Europe trunk, so the outbound footprint tracked here is smaller than for Shanghai or Busan — most of these lanes are vessel rotations onwards after Le Havre discharge. Each card shows the median container shipping transit time, the 25th–75th percentile range, and the number of tracked containers. Click any card to open the full Le Havre → destination lane on our route explorer.

Le Havre's Onward Reach — Interactive Route Map

Every long-haul lane from Le Havre on a single map, drawn along its actual sea route. Line thickness reflects how many routes share that lane. Click any destination port for transit-time stats and a link to its port profile. Use the Simulate disruption controls to close the Suez or Panama canals and watch the network re-route in real time.

Simulate disruption

Default routing — all canals open

Le Havre (origin) Destination port No-sail zone Lane traffic few → many routes

Direct sailing — Shanghai → Le Havre vs Shanghai → Antwerp

Both Le Havre and Antwerp are major NW European gateways for the Asia-Europe trunk, and both can be reached on a single direct mainline service from Shanghai (no transshipment). Below: the door-to-door time for each direct routing, decomposed into gate-in dwell at Shanghai, vessel transit, and gate-out dwell at the destination — so it's visible where the gap between the two destinations comes from.

Transshipment dwell — Le Havre vs Antwerp

Beyond direct service, both ports also act as transshipment points where a container is unloaded from one vessel and reloaded onto the next. How long does that handover actually take? Below: median TS dwell at Le Havre and at Antwerp, plus the typical range each, from our tracked-shipment data.

In our tracked-shipment data, the carriers moving the most containers through Le Havre are MSC (39,993), Maersk (4,149), and COSCO (165). At Antwerp, the top carriers are MSC (165,660), Maersk (21,122), and COSCO (3,109).

Frequently asked: Le Havre container shipping

Quick answers to the questions maritime operators search for, with figures pulled directly from our tracked-shipment data and the simulator above.

How long does it take to ship a container from Shanghai to Le Havre?

About 52.0 days door-to-door on a direct service (no transshipment). That breaks down into 3.0 days gate-in dwell at Shanghai + 45.0 days vessel sailing + 4.0 days gate-out dwell at Le Havre, across 599 direct shipments in our data.

Is Shanghai to Le Havre faster than Shanghai to Antwerp?

Shanghai → Le Havre is faster in our data, by about 2.0 days. Door-to-door medians: Shanghai → Le Havre: 52.0 days (sailing leg 45.0d, 599 direct shipments). Shanghai → Antwerp: 54.0 days (sailing leg 46.0d, 868 direct shipments). Most of the gap comes from the vessel-sailing leg, not from terminal dwell.

What is the typical transshipment dwell at the Port of Le Havre?

About 6.0 days. Half of all transshipped containers in our data spend between 3 and 9 days at the Port of Le Havre — the time between being unloaded from the inbound vessel and reloaded onto the outbound vessel (16,597 tracked records).

Is transshipment faster at Le Havre or Antwerp?

Antwerp is faster at transshipment in our data, by about 1.0 days at the median. Le Havre: 6.0 days median TS dwell (most containers between 3 and 9 days, 16,597 tracked records). Antwerp: 5.0 days (most between 3 and 8 days, 64,606 tracked records).

What are typical transit times from Le Havre?

Door-to-door times for selected long-haul lanes (gate-in dwell at Le Havre + vessel sailing + gate-out dwell at the destination port). Click any destination to open that lane on the route explorer — the same numbers will appear there:

Le Havre → Singapore — about 44 days door-to-door
Le Havre → Mundra — about 55 days door-to-door
Le Havre → Montreal — about 22 days door-to-door
Le Havre → Rio de Janeiro — about 30 days door-to-door
Le Havre → Shanghai — about 83 days door-to-door
Le Havre → Lome — about 38 days door-to-door
Le Havre → Pointe Noire — about 38 days door-to-door
Le Havre → New York — about 20 days door-to-door

For other lanes, click any destination on the map above or browse the route cards in the previous section.

Last updated 26 September 2026 — numbers, charts and FAQ figures are regenerated automatically every time our shipment-tracking pipeline ingests fresh carrier data.