How long from China to West Africa? Real transit…

When a customer asks how long delivery takes, the answer is not the number on the sailing schedule. Real time has three parts: waiting for the vessel, time at sea, and collection after arrival. Split them and you can quote a delivery window you can stand behind.

From Shanghai to major West African ports, the sea leg is 27–42 days; add 15–30 days waiting for a vessel, and door to door is usually 6–10 weeks. Lagos is fastest (27 days), Dakar slowest (42).

27 days

Lagos (fastest)

15–30 days

Waiting for a vessel (mostly monthly)

6–10 weeks

Door-to-door total

Sea days for nine West African ports

Port	Country	Sea days	Frequency
Lagos Apapa	Nigeria	27	Monthly
Lomé	Togo	29	Monthly
Cotonou	Benin	30	Monthly
Tema	Ghana	32	Monthly
Abidjan	Côte d'Ivoire	34	Monthly
Douala	Cameroon	35	Monthly
Luanda	Angola	38	Every two months
Durban	South Africa	40	Monthly
Dakar	Senegal	42	Monthly

These are port-to-port sea days, excluding waiting for the vessel. Ro-ro services to Africa are mostly monthly: miss one and you lose a month. When customers say "two months", most of it is waiting, not slow steaming.

Three separate clocks

Waiting for the vessel

15–30 days. Monthly is normal; a "weekly" schedule usually means transhipment connections, not direct service.

At sea

27–42 days depending on the port. Transhipment adds 10–15 days over direct.

After arrival

Collection takes 3–7 days with complete documents. Document problems mean storage charges, billed daily.

Ro-ro or container

✓Complete vehicles, driveable, no rush

Ro-ro: priced per lane metre, no handling damage, the mainstay on West African routes

!Tight deadline or parts shipped with the car

Container: more sailings, but lashing and securing must be done properly

×Loose parts with no securing

Cargo shifts in the box; you open it to a load of scratches

Why carriers differ by a week on the same route

On the same destination, a 5–10 day spread between carriers is normal. Three reasons: port rotation (Tema before Lagos, or the reverse), transhipment hub (Tangier, Las Palmas, Colombo), and vessel type and speed. Ask which ports the service calls and where it tranships — not "roughly how many days".

Four common mistakes when quoting transit time

✓Quoting sea days only, ignoring the wait — the customer starts chasing in week four
✓Promising a "weekly" service — usually transhipment, arriving two weeks later
✓Ignoring port holidays and clearance queues — West African ports barely move on public holidays
✓Mixing ports — Lagos and Dakar differ by 15 days

Schedules change with route adjustments. These ranges were verified in November 2026; confirm against the carrier's current schedule before booking. Last verified: 5 November 2026.