Freight rate is the number people ask about. Route structure is the thing that determines whether a shipment arrives when you said it would, and it gets almost no attention until something is late.
The Chinese end
Container services to West Africa load from the major southern and eastern ports. CMA CGM’s Asia–West Africa service calls at Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo and Nansha on the Chinese side, running weekly with twelve vessels across eleven ports of call, on a full rotation of about 84 days.
We quote FOB Nansha because Nansha is in Guangzhou, close to the Guangdong used-vehicle supply, and because it is a regular call on the West Africa services. Loading closer to where the cars are reduces inland movement, which is cost you pay without gaining anything.
A note on that 84-day rotation figure: it describes how long a vessel takes to complete the whole circuit and come back. It is not your transit time, which is one leg of it. Confusing the two is the most common misreading of a published schedule.
The African end, and what changed
The interesting development of recent years is on the Nigerian side. Lekki Deep Sea Port has moved from construction to functioning transshipment hub:
- Its first vessel berthed alongside delivery of ship-to-shore and RTG cranes
- It has received the 14,812 TEU CMA CGM Scandola, a vessel class West Africa could not previously handle
- It has handled its first transshipment vessel
- It has been added to HMM–ONE Alliance calls
Why that matters to a car importer: deeper water and modern cranes mean larger vessels can call directly. Larger direct calls mean fewer transshipments, and transshipment is where schedules slip and handling damage happens. A cargo that moves once is more predictable than a cargo that moves three times.
For Ghana, Tema remains the default quoting port, serving Accra and the south, with Takoradi as the alternative. For Nigeria, Apapa in Lagos is the default, with Tin Can Island alongside it.
Route structure over rate
Two quotes for the same lane can differ by a few hundred dollars and differ enormously in reliability. Questions worth asking that are not about price:
Direct or transshipped? And if transshipped, where and with what connection window.
Which sailing, specifically? Weekly service means a missed cut-off costs a week, not a day.
What is the current transit on this rotation? Not the published rotation length — the leg.
Is a peak season surcharge in force or announced? CMA CGM has published PSS notices for China to West Africa Central and South ranges. A PSS is a separate line that can arrive after you have quoted a buyer.
The roll-on/roll-off alternative
For vehicles specifically, the dedicated car carriers are worth knowing even if you ship containers. Höegh Autoliners operates an East Asia to Africa trade lane, Wallenius Wilhelmsen runs ocean transportation on the same broad geography, and Grimaldi is a major vehicle logistics operator — its role in Chinese vehicle exports has grown to the point where BYD has publicly recognised its part in global vehicle logistics.
RoRo prices per unit rather than per container, which makes it the right comparison for single-car shipments and for anything that will not fit a box.
What we cannot tell you from here
Live schedules and live rates. Both move, and both are quoted against a specific sailing rather than a lane.
We work from official carrier route documentation, and even that is a snapshot. Two carrier pages we previously relied on for West Africa service detail have since been withdrawn, which is a reasonable illustration of how quickly this information ages. Confirm current structure with the carrier or your forwarder rather than with an article — including this one.
Common questions
Q: Which Chinese port should I load from? A: Whichever is closest to the cars. We quote FOB Nansha because it is close to Guangdong supply and is a regular West Africa call.
Q: What did Lekki Port change for importers? A: It allows much larger vessels to call directly, which reduces transshipment and makes schedules more predictable.
Q: Is the 84-day rotation my transit time? A: No. That is the vessel’s full circuit. Your leg is shorter — ask your forwarder for the figure on your sailing.
Q: How do I avoid surprise surcharges? A: Ask before booking whether a peak season surcharge is in force or announced for your sailing window, and get the answer in writing.
