Hold stock in China until the order is ready to move
We arrange bonded and un-bonded storage for cargo waiting on clearance, on consolidation, or on a release date. Goods are received against the packing list, recorded, held in condition, picked to your schedule and delivered where you need them.
What this service covers
Warehousing is a controlled pause in the supply chain. Cargo has arrived, or is ready to leave, but the moment it is needed is rarely the moment it turns up. The job of a warehouse is to hold that gap without stock going missing, getting damaged, or falling out of your records. We arrange bonded and un-bonded storage so the decision about when goods move belongs to you and your order book, rather than to a vessel's arrival date.
The two modes answer different questions. Bonded storage holds imported goods under customs supervision before they are entered for home use: import duty and import VAT stay suspended while the goods remain in bond, and become due at the point you withdraw them for the domestic market. If the goods are re-exported from bond instead, duty normally never becomes due in that country at all. Un-bonded, or general, storage holds goods that are already cleared, or export cargo waiting to be consolidated and shipped; there is no customs step between your release instruction and the pick.
We treat the warehouse as a node on the route rather than as a separate supplier. Cargo is counted against the packing list on arrival, checked for condition, and put away only once a stock record is open against it. Because we also handle customs clearance, road, sea, rail and air freight alongside the warehouse work, releasing stock and booking its onward leg is a single instruction rather than two contracts and two conversations. Cargo staged in China can leave through Ningbo, Shanghai, Qingdao, Tianjin or Xiamen, the five gateways where our operational experience is deepest, or overland by road and rail towards Europe, Central Asia and Russia.
Not every facility can take every cargo. Dangerous goods carry class, segregation and licensing restrictions that are set site by site; heavy and oversized pieces are limited by floor loading, stacking height and the equipment available to move them. Those are questions we answer in writing before you book, not after your cargo is on the road. Tell us what you are holding, in what volume, and for roughly how long, and we will answer the quote request within one business day.
What you get when you book this service
Bonded or un-bonded storage, chosen per consignment
We place cargo according to its customs status, not according to what is convenient. Goods still to be entered sit in bond under customs supervision, with duty and import VAT suspended and every receipt and release accounted for in customs records. Cleared goods and export cargo awaiting consolidation sit in general storage, released on your instruction alone.
Inbound receipt and condition check
Every delivery is counted against the packing list and checked for carton and pallet condition before put-away. Shortages, damage and discrepancies are photographed and reported to you at that point, while the position is still provable against the delivering carrier, rather than discovered weeks later when the order is picked.
Stock records and an agreed reporting cycle
Stock is recorded at SKU level from receipt to release, and the reporting cycle is fixed at the start: on movement, weekly, or to whatever rhythm your planning runs on. Cycle counts are agreed in advance so a count is never a surprise interruption to a pick.
Pick, pack and order preparation
We pick to your order file, repack and consolidate cartons, apply shipping marks and destination labelling, and re-palletise to the pallet specification the receiving market expects. Loads are built to the outbound equipment, so pallet footprint and stacking height are settled before the container or trailer is booked, not at the loading bay.
Outbound distribution across every mode we run
Released stock moves out as FTL or LTL road freight, as FCL or LCL sea freight, by rail on the China-Europe, China-Central Asia and China-Russia corridors, by air, or as a multimodal combination. The same team books the onward leg, so the release date and the departure are planned against each other.
Customs coordination in and out
Our clearance and brokerage service covers HS classification, declarations and entry documents on the way in, and the withdrawal declaration when stock leaves bond. Licences, permits and certificates are checked against the goods before arrival rather than at the point they block a release.
Handling for restricted and awkward cargo
Dangerous goods, overweight pieces and out-of-gauge units are assessed against the nominated site before booking. For DG we need the UN number, class, packing group and safety data sheet; for heavy or oversized pieces, the dimensions, weight per piece and how it is presented. We confirm in writing what can be stored and under what conditions.
From enquiry to delivery
Tell us what you are holding and why
Send the SKU or commodity list, volume in pallets or CBM, weight, HS codes, expected arrival, the rough dwell time you are planning for, and where the goods go next. Say whether the goods are cleared, still to be cleared, or intended for re-export. We answer quote requests within one business day.
We confirm the storage mode and the facility
We set out whether bonded or un-bonded storage fits, what the nominated site can handle in terms of DG class, floor loading and stacking, how inbound delivery is to be made, and how the charges are structured: storage per pallet or per CBM per period, inbound handling, outbound handling, and pick and pack.
Pre-arrival paperwork and the booking slot
Before the goods leave the supplier we want the packing list with piece counts, dimensions and weights, the commercial invoice, the HS codes, any licence, permit or certificate the goods need, and your marking and labelling instruction. We book the delivery appointment and set up the stock record so the cargo is expected, not merely arriving.
Receipt, check and put-away
Cargo is counted and condition-checked at the door. Anything that does not match the packing list is reported to you before put-away, with photographs. Only matched, recorded stock goes to a location, which is what makes the later pick reliable.
Holding, reporting and stock condition
Stock is reported on the agreed cycle so you know what is on hand before you promise it to a customer. For bonded cargo we track the clearance position alongside the stock position, including any time limit the customs authority has set on the goods remaining in bond.
Release, pick and dispatch
You send the order. We pick and pack it, prepare the export or delivery documents, and where the goods are leaving bond we file the withdrawal declaration, at which point duty and import VAT fall due. The onward leg is booked by the same team and we confirm collection, departure and delivery back to you.
When this is the right service — and when it is not
Best for
- Importers who buy in full-container quantities but sell or ship in smaller lots, and need the container broken down and held rather than delivered in one drop
- Cargo that lands before its clearance position is settled, because a classification, licence, permit or certificate is still being resolved
- Consolidation programmes where several suppliers deliver into one point in China and one shipment goes out
- E-commerce sellers holding buffer stock close to the gateway, picked and packed against orders as they come in
- Re-export and transit cargo that is not intended for the domestic market and should not attract duty there
- Project and DG cargo staged to match an installation window or a booked vessel, train or aircraft slot, subject to the site accepting the class and the piece sizes
When another mode fits better
Storage is the wrong answer when the cargo can simply go straight through. Every warehouse movement is charged twice, once in and once out, plus the storage period itself, so cargo that already has a firm delivery date is usually cheaper and simpler delivered direct from the port or the supplier. Bonded storage in particular is a financing decision: if the duty you are deferring is small and the dwell is long, the storage and handling charges can overtake the saving, and you may do better clearing on arrival. It also postpones a compliance problem rather than solving one, since goods that cannot lawfully enter the market will not become admissible by sitting in bond. If your real need is fast last-mile delivery to consumers, a warehouse in China is in the wrong country, and the stock belongs in a destination-market fulfilment facility with the freight leg planned to feed it. Goods that need controlled temperature or humidity, and any dangerous goods class, should never be booked on the assumption that a facility can take them; ask us to confirm the site first. And where the cargo is genuinely urgent, the answer is air freight moving now, not stock held against a future order.
Bonded and un-bonded storage compared
Customs rules differ by country, by procedure and by the individual facility's approval, so treat this as orientation and ask us to confirm the position for your cargo and jurisdiction before you plan around it.
| Point of comparison | Bonded warehouse | Un-bonded (general) warehouse |
|---|---|---|
| Customs status | Goods are under customs supervision and have not been entered for home use | Goods are in free circulation, already cleared, or are export cargo not yet shipped |
| Duty and import VAT | Suspended while the goods remain in bond; due when they are withdrawn for home use | Paid at import clearance, before the goods reach the warehouse |
| Re-export | Goods can normally be re-exported from bond without duty becoming due in that country | Duty has already been paid; recovering it needs a drawback or refund claim, where one exists |
| Release process | Requires a customs declaration on withdrawal, so releases follow customs procedure and hours | Released on your instruction, with no customs step in between |
| Stock control | Customs-approved records; every receipt, movement and release must be accounted for | Commercial stock records in a format agreed with you |
| Work permitted on the goods | Usually limited to permitted operations such as sorting, repacking and labelling; confirm before assuming | Unrestricted, subject to what the site is equipped to do |
| Time in store | A maximum period is commonly set by the customs authority, with extension sometimes possible | Commercial, set by your agreement, not by customs |
| Typical reason to use it | Duty deferral, clearance pending, licence awaited, transit or re-export | Consolidation, buffer stock, distribution of cleared goods |
Warehousing & Distribution — common questions
Duty and import VAT fall due at the point the goods are withdrawn from bond and entered for home use, not when they arrive at the warehouse. If the goods are re-exported from bond instead, duty normally never becomes due in that country. The precise treatment depends on the jurisdiction and on the customs procedure used, so send us the origin, destination and HS codes and we will confirm the position before you commit stock to bond.
A maximum storage period is set by the customs authority concerned, and it varies by country and by the procedure the goods are held under. Some regimes allow an extension on application, others do not. This matters because the clock usually starts on arrival, not on the day you start planning the onward move, so ask us to confirm the limit that applies to your cargo before it ships rather than after.
The usual structure is a storage charge per pallet or per cubic metre for each storage period, plus a handling charge inbound, a handling charge outbound, and separate charges for pick and pack, re-palletising and labelling where you need them. We do not publish rates because the figure depends on your volume, dwell time, pick profile and the handling the goods need. Send that profile and we will answer your quote request within one business day.
A packing list with piece counts, carton dimensions and weights; the commercial invoice; the HS codes; any licence, permit or certificate the commodity requires; your marking and labelling instruction; the expected arrival date so we can book the delivery slot; and how you want stock reported. Unresolved HS classification is a common cause of a consignment sitting longer than planned, so settle it before shipment, not on arrival.
Dangerous goods handling is one of our specialisms, but warehouse storage of DG is governed by class, segregation rules and site licensing, and approvals are site-specific, so no facility should be assumed to accept every class. Send the UN number, class, packing group, packing configuration and the safety data sheet, and we will confirm whether the goods can be stored, at which facility and under what conditions, before anything is booked.
Yes. It is a common reason to stage inventory in China. Each supplier's delivery is received and recorded separately against its own packing list, so you can see what has landed and what is outstanding, then the outbound shipment is built when the last piece is in. It can leave as FCL or LCL sea freight, by rail, by road, by air, or as a multimodal combination across our Europe, Central Asia and Russia, North America, and South Asia and Gulf lanes.
We provide pick, pack and distribution support, which for e-commerce sellers usually means holding buffer stock and releasing it against orders. What we need from you before starting is the order file format, the packing specification, the labelling requirement and an honest picture of daily order volume and seasonal peaks, because those determine whether the arrangement works. Send that and we will tell you what we can commit to.
Cargo insurance is available across all the modes we handle, but cover during a storage period is written differently from cover in transit, and the two should not be assumed to be the same policy. Tell us the stock value, the expected dwell time and the commodity, and we will confirm what cover can be arranged and what it excludes before your goods arrive.
Guides related to this service
Understanding Bonded Warehousing for Import and Export
Bonded storage lets goods sit in China without customs duty due until they actually move.
Read More Customs & Compliance GuidesA Shipper's Guide to Customs Documentation
Delays at customs are almost always a paperwork problem, not a policy one.
Read More Shipping How-TosHow to Pack and Palletize Cargo for International Shipping
Good palletizing protects cargo and speeds up handling at every stop along the route.
Read More Shipping How-TosFTL vs LTL: Getting Road Freight Pricing Right
Full Truckload and Less-than-Truckload pricing work differently — picking the wrong one costs money either way.
Read MoreExternal standards bodies and government sources, linked for reference. Transeasy is not affiliated with these organisations.