Ocean freight to the US West Coast is typically cheaper and faster than to the East Coast. So most importers default to the West Coast, and a good number of them pay more overall for the privilege.
Why the ocean rates differ
Transpacific sailings from South China to Los Angeles or Long Beach are the shortest mainline route into the US. Reaching the East Coast means either the Panama Canal or a longer routing, adding both time and cost. That’s structural, not seasonal.
So on the ocean leg alone, the West Coast usually wins on both price and transit time. The decision would be easy if the container’s journey ended at the port.
Why it usually doesn’t decide the outcome
It doesn’t end at the port. It ends at your warehouse, your 3PL, or an Amazon fulfilment centre — and inland transport in the US is expensive.
Moving a container from Los Angeles to a destination in the Midwest or on the East Coast can cost a substantial multiple of what a short local drayage costs. If your inventory needs to end up in Pennsylvania, the money you saved on the ocean leg goes to a trucking company, and you also spent the extra days getting there.
The real question isn’t “which port is cheaper.” It’s “which routing gets my goods to their final destination for the lowest total cost and acceptable transit.”
For a seller whose customers and warehouses are east of the Mississippi, an East Coast port often wins outright — higher ocean rate, lower inland cost, fewer handoffs. How inland sits in the six-layer DDP stack: how DDP pricing from China to the US actually works.
The FBA complication
If you’re shipping to Amazon, you don’t fully control the destination. FBA assigns fulfilment centres, and they’re distributed nationally.
That has two consequences:
- Your inland cost depends on assignments you don’t make. A West Coast arrival with assignments to eastern FCs means expensive transcontinental trucking on top of your cheap ocean rate.
- Distribution requirements can split your shipment. One container can become several inland movements, and each carries its own cost and its own appointment.
Worth talking through with your forwarder before booking rather than after the assignments come back.
The factors nobody weighs until it’s too late
Congestion and labour risk. Port disruption is not evenly distributed. Shippers who route everything through one coast discover their entire supply chain has a single point of failure at exactly the wrong moment. Some importers deliberately split volume across both coasts as insurance — the premium on half your volume buys continuity for all of it.
Chassis and drayage availability. In tight markets, getting a container off the terminal can take longer than the last thousand miles of ocean. This varies by port and by season.
Free time. Ports differ in how many days you get before demurrage starts. A port with a cheaper rate and tighter free time can be more expensive in practice if your delivery appointment is weeks out. What that surcharge looks like on the quote: what DDP actually includes — and what it doesn’t.
Your own inventory geography. If you hold stock in one region and sell nationally, the port that’s closest to your stock is usually the right one, almost regardless of rate.
A decision framework
Work through it in this order:
- Where does the inventory physically need to end up? Not which port is cheaper — where do the goods have to be.
- Estimate inland cost from each port to that destination. This number is frequently larger than the ocean difference.
- Add the transit difference and price it using the same method as the air-versus-ocean decision.
- Check free time and expected dwell at each option.
- Ask whether concentration risk matters to you. If one disruption would stop your business, splitting is worth a premium.
- For FBA, factor in assignment uncertainty.
Only after all six does the ocean rate difference become the deciding factor. It’s the last input, not the first. How to price the extra weeks: air or ocean — compare total cost of waiting.
The version of this nobody tells you
Sometimes the answer is neither — it’s a third routing you weren’t offered. Gulf ports, secondary West Coast ports, or a transload arrangement where the container is stripped near the port and the goods move inland on a more efficient basis.
A forwarder who only quotes you the two obvious options may simply be quoting the two lanes they run. Ask what else is possible for your specific destination.
Tell us where the goods need to end up
A warehouse address, a 3PL, or your FBA distribution pattern. We’ll quote the realistic routings side by side, with inland included, so you’re comparing door-to-door totals instead of ocean rates. Free, no obligation. Mon–Sat, 08:00–22:00 China time (GMT+8).
Port conditions, free time and inland rates vary. Current as of August 2026. This is general information, not legal advice.