Shipping from China to San Antonio
China → San Antonio · via SCL air / San Antonio sea · clearance by Servicio Nacional de Aduanas de Chile
Freight from China into San Antonio clears through SCL air / San Antonio sea. San Antonio is the largest container port, and the inland leg is same-day, so the clearance date is effectively the delivery date.
The clearing authority is Servicio Nacional de Aduanas de Chile. Historical dwell on this gateway is around 2–6 days, and it lengthens in Sep–Nov.
Duty, tax and clearance into San Antonio
Imports into Chile are cleared by Servicio Nacional de Aduanas de Chile. The headline position is: IVA 19%; general duty 6%, but 0% on most goods under the China–Chile free trade agreement with a valid certificate of origin. The de-minimis threshold is USD 41 for courier consignments.
Conformity is the part most first-time importers underestimate: SEC certification for electrical products; SAG clearance for wood packaging and agricultural goods. Getting this wrong is expensive because it usually cannot be fixed after the cargo has landed.
Restrictions and known friction points for Chile: FTA preference depends on a correctly issued certificate of origin; without it the 6% general rate applies. SAG inspects wood packaging strictly — ISPM-15 treatment must be visible and valid. SEC certification is required for electrical goods.
What the routing looks like in practice
Chile was the first South American country to sign a free trade agreement with China, and most goods now enter at 0% duty against a valid certificate of origin — leaving 19% IVA as the main landed-cost element. Clearance at San Antonio and Valparaíso is comparatively fast and predictable by regional standards, which makes Chile a common first market for exporters testing South America.
| Air gateways used | SCL (Santiago) |
|---|---|
| Air transit, China to gateway | 4–6 business days |
| Sea gateways used | San Antonio, Valparaíso, Coronel |
| Sea transit, China to gateway | 26–35 calendar days |
| Gateway serving San Antonio | SCL air / San Antonio sea |
| Inland leg to San Antonio | Same day from the gateway |
| Typical clearance / dwell | 2–6 days |
| Peak season to plan around | Sep–Nov |
Pre-shipment checklist for San Antonio
- Get the conformity paperwork moving early: SEC certification for electrical products; SAG clearance for wood packaging and agricultural goods.
- Budget for the inland leg: same-day delivery beyond gateway clearance to reach San Antonio.
- Book earlier than the transit time suggests during Sep–Nov, when space on this lane tightens.
- Ask for the HS code in writing from your supplier and verify the Chile duty rate against it yourself.
- Confirm the consignee in San Antonio can act as importer of record — Servicio Nacional de Aduanas de Chile will not release cargo to an unregistered party.
- Put the San Antonio delivery address, contact name and phone number on the invoice, not just the packing list.
Air, sea or overland into San Antonio?
| Mode | Transit to gateway | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|
| ✈️ Air Freight | 4–6 business days | time-critical, high-value and low-volume cargo |
| 🚢 Sea Freight | 26–35 calendar days | volume cargo where cost per kilo matters more than speed |
Transit shown is China departure to the Chile gateway and excludes the same-day inland leg to San Antonio and 2–6 days of clearance.
Mode guides for San Antonio
Frequently asked questions
How long does shipping from China to San Antonio take?
China to the Chile gateway is 4–6 business days by air, 26–35 calendar days by sea. On top of that, allow 2–6 days of clearance with Servicio Nacional de Aduanas de Chile and a same-day inland leg to San Antonio.
What duty and tax will I pay importing into San Antonio?
Servicio Nacional de Aduanas de Chile applies: IVA 19%; general duty 6%, but 0% on most goods under the China–Chile free trade agreement with a valid certificate of origin. The de-minimis position is USD 41 for courier consignments. Under a DDP arrangement these are pre-paid, so nothing is collected on arrival in San Antonio.
What documents does Servicio Nacional de Aduanas de Chile require?
A commercial invoice with HS codes, a packing list, the bill of lading or air waybill, a certificate of origin where it lowers duty, and any product certification (SEC certification for electrical products; SAG clearance for wood packaging and agricultural goods). We prepare and file these as part of the service.
Can you ship batteries or sensitive cargo to San Antonio?
Yes. Battery cargo by air follows IATA PI 965–970 depending on how the cells are packed, and moves on certified channels via SCL (Santiago). Surcharges apply and the declaration has to be made before booking.
What certification do I need for Chile?
For regulated goods, plan for: SEC certification for electrical products; SAG clearance for wood packaging and agricultural goods. Missing conformity paperwork is the single most common cause of a hold, and in most cases it cannot be remedied once the cargo has arrived.
When is the busiest time on the China–Chile lane?
Space and rates tighten around Sep–Nov, plus the China-side windows of Chinese New Year in January or February and Golden Week in early October. Book one to two weeks earlier in those periods.
Other delivery cities in Chile
References & official sources
Duty rates, thresholds and conformity requirements for Chile change by ministerial decision, sometimes mid-year. The figures on this page are buyer-planning references, not a customs ruling — confirm the current position for your own HS code with Servicio Nacional de Aduanas de Chile or your broker before you ship.
- Servicio Nacional de Aduanas
- WTO — Tariff Profiles (applied MFN duty by country)
- IATA — Lithium battery shipping guidance (PI 965–970)
- World Bank — Logistics Performance Index
- ICC — Incoterms 2020 rules (DDP, DAP, FOB definitions)
Page data last reviewed: November 2026.
Shipping by industry
This page covers the route and clearance picture for the destination. Packing, classification and the compliance step that actually holds a shipment depend on what you are sending — these guides cover that by commodity.
- Retail Products E-commerce & Retail Channels
- Sheet Metal Metal Products & Industrial Components
- Storage Tanks Metal Products & Industrial Components
- Electric Motors General Machinery & Industrial Equipment
- Agricultural Drones Agriculture & Livestock Equipment
- Wire & Cable New Energy, Power & Electrical
- Automotive Lighting Automotive & Vehicles
- Flooring Building Materials & Construction Products
- Cartons Wood, Bamboo & Paper Products
- Flexible Packaging Plastics, Rubber & Packaging
- Capacitors Electronic Components & Semiconductors
- Smart Home Products Consumer Electronics & Smart Devices
FCL Container Rates — China to San Antonio
Live port-to-port ocean freight for a full container into San Antonio, by origin port. Ocean freight only — origin haulage, customs clearance and destination delivery are quoted separately.
Tianjin → San Antonio
| Container | Rate (USD) |
|---|---|
| 40HQ | On request |
Yantian → San Antonio
| Container | Rate (USD) |
|---|---|
| 40NOR | 5,156 |
| 40HQ | 6,628 |
Spot allocations move week to week — reconfirm the rate against the current sailing before booking.
How these prices are calculated — chargeable weight
Freight is not billed on the number on your bathroom scale. It is billed on chargeable weight: the greater of actual gross weight and volumetric weight, where volumetric weight is L × W × H (cm) ÷ 6000. Denser cargo pays on its weight; light bulky cargo pays on the space it occupies. Whichever is higher is the one you pay — never the lower.
- One cubic metre = 167 kg. That is 1,000,000 cm³ ÷ 6000, the same divisor used for the volumetric check, so both sides of this page agree with each other.
- Per-kilogram channels. The rate is multiplied by chargeable weight, rounded up to the next whole kilogram. A 300 kg consignment that only measures out to a smaller volumetric figure is still charged on its 300 kg actual weight.
- Freight only. These are published freight rates. Duty, tax and customs charges at destination are not a fixed number we can print: they follow your product's HS code, its declared value and the exchange rate applied on the day of entry, so they are confirmed against your actual goods and quoted separately.
- Indicative only — the real price can be higher or lower. Nothing on this page is a quotation or a commitment. What you finally pay depends on what the product is, how it is packed, the chargeable weight, the declared value, the destination duty position and the exchange rate at the time. Send the product details, weight and dimensions and we will price your specific shipment.
Price Trend — San Antonio
Live rate for the linked route page, shown here for a quick read before you click through.
Checking the Chile duty position yourself
Duty and tax figures on this page are planning estimates. The binding assessment is made by Servicio Nacional de Aduanas de Chile against your declared HS code at the time of entry; where the amount is material, verify the current rate through ITC Market Access Map before committing to an order.
If you want to sanity-check a duty figure yourself, start from the heading rather than the product name — the WCO Harmonized System is the underlying nomenclature, and the WTO Tariff & Trade Data portal holds the applied rates by country pair.
For ocean cargo, restricted commodities move under the IMO's IMDG Code, and the container has to be declared and stowed accordingly. Batteries, flammables and corrosives all have a compliant ocean path; what causes rolled bookings is finding out about them after the container is packed.
On the origin side, export declaration and any commodity inspection requirement fall under China Customs (GACC); we handle that filing as part of the service, but the requirement is theirs, not ours.
For a wider view of how importing into Chile actually works — documentation norms, inspection behavior, the paperwork that tends to hold shipments — the U.S. ITA guide to Chile customs regulations is a useful independent read alongside our own lane notes.
Watch: the process behind this route
This guide covers routing and clearance for San Antonio. The video below covers the wider shipping process that sits around it.
FCL vs LCL Shipping: When to Switch (Break-Even Point Explained) — Max Antonov. Published on YouTube by a third party; we link it because it explains the process well, not because we produced it or endorse the provider.