Shipping a car from China to Lagos

What ocean freight from Guangzhou to Lagos actually costs in 2026 — RoRo versus 20ft and 40ft container, how consolidation changes the per-car figure, and the three legs the freight quote leaves out.

2026-10-22HESON MOTORS← All guides

The freight number a forwarder gives you covers one leg of four. On a single car shipped RoRo, the three legs around the ocean crossing add USD 850 to 1,800 per unit — which is close to the freight itself. This page gives the 2026 ranges for each method and the arithmetic that decides which one you should book.

The freight quote is one line out of four

Every car we ship from Guangzhou to Lagos crosses four separate cost points. Only the second one is quoted as "freight", and it is the one that moves.

China export handling — USD 350 to 700 per car. Export declaration, commodity inspection, export licence and inland trucking to Nansha. This is payable whether you ship one car or four.
Ocean freight — depends on method. The only leg that is quoted as freight, and the only one that changes between bookings. Ranges below.
Destination port charges — USD 300 to 600 per car. Terminal handling, discharge and storage at Lagos. Similar at Lomé, Abidjan and Douala.
Clearing agent and inland delivery — USD 200 to 500 per car, plus trucking. Trucking to your yard is priced by distance, so it is the one line we cannot quote without knowing where the car is going.

Add those three non-ocean legs and you get a floor of about USD 850 and a ceiling of about USD 1,800 per car. Against a RoRo freight of USD 1,150 to 2,650, that is not a rounding error. Anyone who budgets only the freight number arrives at Apapa short.

All figures on this page are planning numbers from 2026 bookings. Ocean freight is a market, not a tariff: it is re-quoted on the day we book, and it can move either way between the quote and the sailing. The other three legs are stable.

What ocean freight costs, by method

These are the Guangzhou to Lagos ranges, per booking, for a normal passenger vehicle or pickup:

Method	Freight, Guangzhou to Lagos	Cars per booking	What it is
RoRo	USD 1,150 – 2,650 per car	1	The car is driven on at Nansha and driven off at Lagos. Cheapest way to move a single car.
20ft container	USD 2,300 – 4,050	1	The car is lashed inside. Costs more than RoRo for one unit, and a 20ft only takes a second car if it is small and racked.
40ft container	USD 3,800 – 6,800	2 – 4	The same box, shared. This is where the per-car number drops sharply.

Transit time is the same on all three: 35 to 45 days at sea from Nansha to Lagos. Method changes the price and the handling, not the sailing.

The consolidation arithmetic

A 40ft container costs the same whether it holds one car or four. That single fact is the biggest lever on your landed cost, and it is why we ask for quantity in the first message rather than after you have picked a car.

Cars in one 40ft	Freight per car	Compared with one car in a 40ft alone
1	USD 3,800 – 6,800	—
2	USD 1,900 – 3,400	half
3	USD 1,267 – 2,267	about a third
4	USD 950 – 1,700	about a quarter

Three cars in one 40ft brings the per-unit freight down to roughly a third of shipping the same car by itself. Nothing about the car changes — only how many cars are standing in the same box.

Consolidation has a condition: the simplest shared container is one where every car goes to the same port and clears under one consignee. If the cars are for different buyers, the container has to be devanned at Lagos and each unit cleared separately, which adds handling and days. Decide who is clearing before you decide to share.

RoRo or container

The choice is not about which is better. It is about what you are shipping alongside the car.

Take RoRo if you are moving one car and nothing else. It is the cheapest per unit and the least handling. The trade-off is real: nothing travels inside the car. No spare parts, no tyres, no personal effects. It is driven on, lashed, and driven off.
Take a container if the car comes with anything. Parts, a second set of wheels, tools, or a second vehicle all travel in the box with it. The base freight is higher and the car has to be properly lashed, but you are paying for the volume once instead of shipping the extras separately.
Take a shared 40ft if you are buying more than one. This is the only route where the per-car freight beats RoRo, and it beats it clearly at three cars.

What moves the quote

The method and the box size. RoRo and a 40ft differ by thousands of dollars on the same route in the same week.
How many cars share the box. The single largest variable you control.
The sailing date. Freight is priced per voyage. A quote is good for the voyage it was quoted for.
Which Lagos port. Apapa and Tin Can Island are separate terminals with separate procedures. A quote that does not name the port is not a quote — ask which one it assumes, because that is where you will be clearing.

What the freight quote does not include

Three things sit outside it, and all three are collected in Nigeria or in China before the car moves:

Duty, levy, VAT and Green Tax. Charged on CIF at Apapa. On a typical USD 23,800 pickup that is about USD 9,900 — several times the freight number. The full landed-cost calculation is here.
SONCAP certification. USD 300 to 600 per shipment plus ECTN of USD 100 to 200 per bill of lading. It is issued in China against the actual unit before loading, so it cannot be added later.
Storage and rent. Accrues daily from the day the container lands. It is zero if your original bill of lading reaches your agent before the vessel berths, and it is the most avoidable cost in the whole shipment.

Why two quotes on the same car differ by thousands

This is the most common confusion we get, and it is almost never one forwarder being cheaper. It is two quotes answering different questions. Before you compare two numbers, check that both answer these four:

What to check	What goes wrong if you do not
Per car or per container	A 40ft quote of USD 5,300 is not five times a RoRo quote of USD 1,900. One price is for the box, the other is for a single vehicle. A per-container price divided by one car looks terrible and divided by four looks unbeatable.
Origin charges in or out	Export declaration, inspection and trucking to Nansha are USD 350 to 700 per car. A quote that excludes them is not cheaper, it is shorter.
Which Lagos port	Apapa and Tin Can Island are separate terminals. A quote that does not name the port has not told you where you are clearing.
The sailing it is valid for	Freight is priced per voyage. An un-dated quote is a price for a ship that may already have sailed.

Two quotes that agree on all four are genuinely comparable, and the difference between them is real. Two that do not agree are not a comparison at all.

Frequently asked

How long does shipping from China to Lagos take? 35 to 45 days at sea. Door to door, from approving a unit to clearing it in Lagos, plan on seven to nine weeks.

Can two cars go in one container? Yes — a 40ft takes two comfortably and up to four with racking. A 20ft takes one.

Is RoRo or a container cheaper? RoRo for a single car. A shared 40ft once you have three.

Do you quote FOB or CIF? FOB Nansha. The car is yours once it is loaded, and the freight is booked on your behalf at cost so you can see the booking.

Tell us how many cars you are moving and which port you clear at, and we will quote the freight both ways — RoRo and a shared 40ft — so you can see the difference on your own volume.

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