Ship container to Europe

How much does it cost to ship a container to or from Europe?

Exporting to Europe:

Miami - Barcelona

From 391 $

NEW YORK - Barcelona

From 395 $

Houston - Barcelona

From 1,490 $

Valencia - Hamburg

From 873 $

Madrid - Hamburg

From 873 $

Bilbao - Hamburg

From 1,116 $

Altamira - Barcelona

From 1,285 $

Veracruz - Barcelona

From 1,288 $

Shipping containers to Europe

If you are thinking of shipping a container of goods to Europe via ocean freight, iContainers offers you two options: full (FCL) or shared (LCL or also known as groupage) containers. Get a quote for shipping containers to Europe via our online platform. Compare the most competitive rates, book and track your shipment with complete transparency.

If you would like to know more about the shipping routes that carry goods to Europe, keep on reading. There are various popular routes for sending containers by number of TEUs to or from Europe. The most used is the one that links Asia with Northern Europe from the west:

Top trade routes from / to Europe (TEU shipped) 2013
Route West Bound East Bound North Bound South Bound TOTAL
Asia - North Europe 9,187,000 4,519,000 - - 13,706,000
Asia - Mediterranean 4,678,000 2,061,000 - - 6,739,000
North Europe - North America 2,636,000 2,074,000 - - 4,710,000
North Europe/Mediterranean-East Coast South America - - 795,000 885,000 1,680,000

Source: Trade Routes – World Shipping Council

Numerous shipping lines operate on these routes. Of them, the most used route to Europe is the Far East – Mediterranean, which has 31 services:

ROUTE SERVICES
North Europe - Far East 28
Far East - Mediterranean 31
North Europe - North America 23
Mediterranean - North America 21
Europe - Mid- East/ South Asia 40
Total 143

Note:Some services might have been counted for more than one route.

Source: Drewry Container Forecaster Q1 & Q2 2013

Thanks to our quote generator, you do not need to contact shipping lines or any middlemen. In less than 15 seconds we provide you with the best rates for sending containers to Europe.

Which European ports are specialised in containers?

Of the 100 most important ports for handling containers, 15 are located in Europe:

EUROPEAN PORT RANKINGS - CONTAINER TRAFFIC - 2014
WORLD RANK PORT COUNTRY TEUs
11 Rotterdam Netherlands 12.453
15 Hamburg Germany 9.729
16 Antwerp Belgium 9.136
23 Bremen Ports Germany 5.796
31 Algeciras - La Linea Spain 4.457
32 Valencia Spain 4.442
38 Felixstowe UK 3.680
46 Gioia Tauro Italy 3.062
51 Marsaxlokk Malta 2.869
58 Le Havre France 2.554
72 Genoa Italy 2.173
79 Barcelona Spain 1.894
81 Southampton United Kingdom 1.662
95 La Spezia Italy 1.301
99 Gdansk Poland 1.212

Source: Top 100 ports in the world 2014 - World Shipping Council

Necessary documentation for sending containers to Europe

In this guide for the procedure and exportation documents (website in Spanish), created by the Information Services Department at ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones, you can check everything you need to do to send a container to Europe. For more information, do not hesitate to contact our exportation experts at iContainers.

Selecting the Incoterm that you are going to use when sending your goods to Europe is one of the most important steps.

More options for shipping containers to Europe

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Discover how to import or export from/to China, India or Vietnam and avoid delays on your cargo. Includes Incoterms and documents.

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