Sea freight for textiles from India typically takes around three to five weeks to Europe and five to seven weeks to the US east coast, depending on the port, the carrier and whether the service is direct or via a transhipment hub. Disruption on the Red Sea route has at times added further time to Europe-bound sailings that reroute around southern Africa. The port-to-port figure is only part of the lead time, and the days either side of it are where most schedules slip.
This article breaks the journey into its stages so you can build a realistic delivery date into your order. Transit times change with the season and with carrier schedules, so ask your forwarder for the current schedule when you book rather than relying on a general figure.
The stages of the journey
- Factory to port: one to three days by road from Ahmedabad or Surat to Mundra or Hazira, and longer to Nhava Sheva. The container must be gated in before the port cut-off, usually a few days before sailing.
- Export clearance: the exporter's agent files the shipping bill and customs releases the container. Normally a day or two, longer if a document is queried.
- Port to port: the sailing itself, around three to five weeks to north European ports and five to seven to the US east coast. US west coast and Mediterranean ports differ, and transhipment via a hub adds days and a risk of missed connections.
- Import clearance and delivery: a day or two for clearance if the documents are clean, then haulage to your warehouse. Add time if the container is selected for examination or if the port is congested.
What stretches the timeline
The most common cause of a late arrival is not a slow vessel but a missed sailing at origin. Goods finished a day late, a document not ready at cut-off, or a truck delayed on the way to the port all push the shipment to the next sailing, which can be a week or more away on a weekly service. The second most common cause is transhipment, where a container waits at a hub for a connecting vessel that is itself delayed.
Seasonal congestion before major holiday periods, carrier blank sailings when demand drops, and route diversions all add time with little notice. A weekly check of the vessel's position after departure tells you early if your arrival date is moving.
Planning the order date
Work backwards from the date you need goods in your warehouse. Allow the port-to-port time for your route, add a week at origin for clearance and gate-in, add a week at destination for clearance and delivery, and then add a buffer of one to two weeks for the things nobody controls. For a seasonal programme, that buffer is the difference between goods on the shelf and goods in a sale.
Where the buffer is not available, splitting the order so that a first part travels on an earlier sailing, or sending a small quantity by air, is usually cheaper than paying for a missed launch.
How we help
We track the production schedule against the port cut-off and tell you in the weekly update if a sailing is at risk. We supervise loading so the container gates in on time, and we check the document pack before the vessel leaves. If you want help planning a delivery date for a first order, book a free 20-minute sourcing review.