Shanghai Shipping Routes — Container Terminals, Transit Times & Tracked Container Lanes

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

About 7.6 days typical (with most containers between 4 and 12 days).

Q: How does Shanghai's transshipment dwell compare to Busan's?

Very close. 7.6 days at Shanghai vs 6.7 days at Busan.

Q: How connected is Shanghai compared to Busan?

Shanghai is more connected. Shanghai: 170 long-haul destinations on 95,661 tracked observations. Busan: 143 on 56,359.

Q: Which carriers move the most containers through Shanghai?

Shanghai top carriers: MSC (104,792), Maersk (98,922), and COSCO (14,048). Busan top carriers: MSC (127,075), Maersk (58,934), and COSCO (926).

Q: What are typical transit times from Shanghai?

Door-to-door transit times for selected long-haul lanes from Shanghai: Shanghai to Singapore about 14 days door-to-door; Shanghai to Los Angeles about 23 days door-to-door; Shanghai to Lazaro Cardenas about 38 days door-to-door; Shanghai to Rotterdam about 48 days door-to-door; Shanghai to Hamburg about 52 days door-to-door; Shanghai to Algeciras about 46 days door-to-door; Shanghai to Durban about 40 days door-to-door; Shanghai to Santos about 44 days door-to-door.

We track container shipments through Shanghai's 9 named terminals across 170 trans-oceanic shipping lanes. Below, the verified data: terminal locations, median transit times, an interactive map of every long-haul route from Shanghai, and a side-by-side comparison with Busan on transshipment dwell and connectivity.

Container Terminals

Tracked Berths

170

Trans-Oceanic Routes

95,661

Tracked Containers

Container Terminals at the Port of Shanghai

9 container terminals make up the Port of Shanghai 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 We do not publish berth-level counts, since individual berths within a terminal cannot always be unambiguously separated from spatial Container Tracking data.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 Shanghai

Below are the long-haul shipping lanes (median transit ≥ 10 days) we have tracked from Shanghai. Regional intra-Asia feeders are excluded. 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 Shanghai → destination lane on our route explorer.

Shanghai's Global Reach — Interactive Route Map

Every long-haul lane from Shanghai 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

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

Transshipment dwell — Shanghai vs Busan

How long does a transshipping container actually sit at each port, between the inbound and outbound vessels? Below: median dwell at Shanghai and at Busan, plus the typical range each, from our tracked-shipment data.

Connectivity — Shanghai vs Busan

How many distinct long-haul destinations does each port reach as the vessel-leg origin in our tracked data? The chart below counts destinations with a median sailing of at least 10 days and at least 5 tracked container records, plus the total tracked container observations on those lanes.

In our tracked-shipment data, the carriers moving the most containers through Shanghai are MSC (104,792), Maersk (98,922), and COSCO (14,048). At Busan, the top carriers are MSC (127,075), Maersk (58,934), and COSCO (926).

Frequently asked: Shanghai container shipping

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

What is the typical transshipment dwell at the Port of Shanghai?

About 7.6 days. Half of all transshipped containers in our data spend between 4 and 12 days at the Port of Shanghai — the time between being unloaded from the inbound vessel and reloaded onto the outbound vessel.

How does Shanghai's transshipment dwell compare to Busan's?

The two ports come out very close. Shanghai: 7.6 days (most containers between 4 and 12 days, 52,193 tracked records). Busan: 6.7 days (most between 4 and 11 days, 78,396 tracked records). Containers move through both ports in essentially the same time.

How connected is Shanghai compared to Busan?

Shanghai reaches more long-haul destinations in our tracked data. Shanghai: 170 long-haul destinations (median sailing ≥ 10 days, ≥ 5 tracked container records per lane), on a base of 95,661 container observations. Busan: 143 long-haul destinations on 56,359 container observations. Shanghai serves 27 more long-haul lanes than Busan in our sample.

Which carriers move the most containers through Shanghai?

In our tracked-shipment data, the top carriers at Shanghai are MSC (104,792), Maersk (98,922), and COSCO (14,048). For comparison, the top carriers at Busan are MSC (127,075), Maersk (58,934), and COSCO (926).

What are typical transit times from Shanghai?

Door-to-door times for selected long-haul lanes (gate-in dwell at Shanghai + 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:

Shanghai → Singapore — about 14 days door-to-door
Shanghai → Los Angeles — about 23 days door-to-door
Shanghai → Lazaro Cardenas — about 38 days door-to-door
Shanghai → Rotterdam — about 48 days door-to-door
Shanghai → Hamburg — about 52 days door-to-door
Shanghai → Algeciras — about 46 days door-to-door
Shanghai → Durban — about 40 days door-to-door
Shanghai → Santos — about 44 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.