Most enquiries from Thailand and Vietnam start as a rate request and end as a routing question: which port, which coast, how many days. Fair enough — but one rule has nothing to do with the routing and everything to do with whether the container is released: the country-of-origin marking on the goods.
Three lanes, and what each is for
| From | Lane | Typical transit | Usually best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Laem Chabang | Direct to US west coast (LA/LB) | 18–22 days | Steady FCL, west coast warehouses |
| Ho Chi Minh (Cat Lai, Cai Mep) | Direct to US west coast | 20–24 days | Garments, furniture, e-commerce cargo |
| Hai Phong | Direct to Seattle/Tacoma | 22–26 days | Northern Vietnam factories |
| Laem Chabang, Cai Mep | Transhipment via Singapore or Port Klang to the US east coast | 32–38 days | East coast and inland east destinations |
| US west coast + IPI rail | Discharge then rail inland | 25–30 days to door | Chicago, Dallas, Memphis |
| Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh (air) | Direct or consolidated air | 3–5 days | Samples and urgent replenishment |
Transit times move with the sailing schedule. Use them to compare lanes, not to promise a delivery date.
How to choose between them
- Where the warehouse actually is. A New Jersey or Atlanta warehouse usually costs less through an all-water east coast service than through a west coast discharge plus two thousand miles of rail.
- How the cargo is built. Out-of-gauge, dangerous goods and battery cargo narrow the choice quickly: not every Southeast Asian service accepts them.
- When the cargo is ready. In peak season the direct west coast services out of Laem Chabang fill first, and a booking made two weeks out often ends up on a transhipment anyway.
One rule: origin marking is checked at import, not at the warehouse
US law requires every imported article to carry its country of origin in a conspicuous, legible and permanent way (19 U.S.C. 1304). The marking is examined when the entry is filed. If it is missing or wrong, the cargo is not "almost cleared" — it is held, and the options are re-export, destruction, or marking under Customs supervision at your cost.
Thailand. A Rayong furniture factory printed "Made in Thailand" on the cartons but left the product itself unmarked. The container was held at Los Angeles, and the fix was supervised marking in the warehouse — more expensive than printing the label at the factory would have been.
Vietnam. Garments cut and sewn in Vietnam, correctly originating there, left the factory with hangtags from the Chinese fabric supplier still attached. The marking contradicted the declared origin: a paperwork problem that reads like a compliance problem, and takes longer to explain.
Three practical points: mark at the factory, not at the destination; make the marking agree with the origin you declared; and check the article and the retail packaging both, because which one needs the mark depends on the product.
The rest of the clearance file
- ISF filed 24 hours before loading — the filing rule has its own note on this site
- Entry, bond and importer of record, with an EIN and a US-resident agent if the importer is foreign
- Product-specific approvals: FDA, FCC, CPSC, USDA
- ISPM 15 marks on every wooden pallet
The return leg
US raw materials, machinery, samples and returns moving back to Thailand or Vietnam are a normal part of the same account. Two things decide the cost: the US export filing, required when the value or the commodity calls for it, and the import side in Thailand or Vietnam — duty, VAT registration, and whether the returned goods qualify for relief as re-imports. Send the US export entry with the cargo; without it the relief argument is much harder.
Before the container is booked
- Confirm the destination warehouse, not only the destination port
- Check that the marking on the product matches the origin you will declare
- Put ISF data collection into the schedule, not after the cut-off
- For the return leg, keep the US export entry with the shipment
Shipping out of Laem Chabang, Ho Chi Minh or Hai Phong for the first time? Send us the product, the destination postcode and the ready date. We will come back with the lane, the transit time and the one marking question to settle at the factory.