📝 Shipping Guide

DDP Shipping from China to France: All-In Costs & Times

October 26, 2026

✍️ James Liu Customs & Compliance Lead

Published: October 26, 2026

DDP shipping from China to France in Q4 2026: sea, air and rail bands, the 20% TVA maths, French self-assessment and who can recover the import VAT.

DDP shipping from China to France puts supplier pickup, export clearance, freight, the French customs entry, duty, 20% TVA and final delivery into one figure. In Q4 2026 that figure starts around $11–$15 per kg at the 100 kg air break, $150–$260 per CBM by sea LCL and $1,300 for a 20ft container to Le Havre — freight bands only, before the tax lines that decide what the shipment actually costs.

France clears every commercial import as an EU entry on the DELTA IE platform: an EORI built on a SIREN/SIRET number, a TARIC classification, duty on the CIF value and 20% TVA. The figures below reuse our Shipping from China to France data and are dated Q4 2026; they are followed by the door-to-door clock, two landing accounts and the French rule most guides still get wrong — import TVA is self-assessed, not paid at the border.

Quick Answer: DDP Shipping from China to France (Q4 2026)

Q4 2026 working bands for general commercial cargo. Freight only — duty, TVA, clearance and delivery are added at quote stage.

DDP Service	Freight Band (Q4 2026)	Door to Door	Best For
DDP Express	Courier zone rates by weight band	3–7 days	Samples and spares up to about 30 kg
DDP Air	$11.20–$14.80/kg at 100 kg; $7.90–$10.50/kg at 300 kg to Paris (CDG) or Lyon (LYS)	6–9 days	Electronics, launch stock, deadline cargo
DDP Rail	Per CBM or per container — above sea, below air	22–30 days	1–10 CBM, seasonal restock
DDP Sea LCL	$150–$260/CBM	32–44 days	1–12 CBM, mixed orders
DDP Sea FCL 20ft	$1,300–$2,280 to Le Havre, Fos-sur-Mer or Dunkirk	30–40 days	From about 13–15 CBM
DDP Sea FCL 40ft	$2,450–$3,720	32–42 days	Light, bulky cargo

What the all-in price adds. Clearance, duty, 20% TVA and delivery. Three of those four scale with declared value rather than weight, so a per-kilogram DDP figure without a declared value is an estimate.

Our Industry Insight: The most common error in China–France comparisons is ranking two different products: one forwarder’s all-in DDP rate set beside another’s port-to-port ocean freight. On this lane the ocean leg is usually 15–20% of what the importer ends up paying. Ask what each figure contains, and on what declared value the tax was calculated.

What an All-In DDP Price to France Covers

DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) is the Incoterms 2020 term under which the seller — or the forwarder acting for it — carries the cargo through every stage, including import duty, and delivers it to the named place. For a buyer with no French entity, no EORI and no broker, it turns four suppliers into one invoice. Scope and service lines: DDP Shipping from China.

Stage	Included in DDP?
Supplier pickup in China, export clearance	Yes
International freight — sea, air or rail	Yes
French import entry on DELTA IE	Yes
Customs duty on the declared value	Yes
Import TVA at 20%, per the agreed terms	Stated in the quote
Final delivery, appointment where required, proof of delivery	Yes

Excluded unless the quote says otherwise: inspection and storage if the Douane selects the consignment; product compliance (CE, the ADEME IDU under the French REP schemes, the Triman logo, French-language labelling); and cargo insurance.

Term	Freight Booked By	Duty and TVA Paid By	Entry Filed By	Your Risk
FOB	You	You	You, through your own broker	Highest
DAP	Us	You	You — you need an EORI and a broker	Medium
DDP	Us	Us, per the agreed terms	Us	Lowest

When DDP Is Not the Cheapest Option

If you already hold a French EORI and work with a commissionnaire en douane, FOB or DAP keeps the margin a forwarder builds into an all-in price. The second case is tax rather than freight, and it is covered below.

DDP Rates from China to France: Sea, Air and Rail (Q4 2026)

Every figure here is freight only — port to port or airport to airport — published in late October 2026 and re-validated at booking.

Sea Freight to France: FCL and LCL

Route	Transit	20ft FCL	40ft FCL	LCL
Shanghai → Le Havre	25–34 days	$1,300–$2,050	$2,450–$3,420	$150–$220/CBM
Ningbo → Le Havre	26–36 days	$1,360–$2,150	$2,520–$3,550	$160–$230/CBM
Shenzhen → Fos-sur-Mer	28–38 days	$1,420–$2,280	$2,650–$3,720	$170–$260/CBM

A 20ft holds about 28–30 CBM usable and a 40ft about 55–58, so the 40ft rate runs 1.5–1.6 times the 20ft rate; past 13–15 CBM a full box usually beats LCL. Most of our France volume books out of Zhejiang and Guangdong: options are on the Sea Freight from China page and in the Shipping from Ningbo guide.

Air Freight to France by Weight Break

Route	Transit	100 kg	300 kg	500 kg	1,000 kg
Shanghai (PVG) → Paris (CDG)	3–6 days	$1,120–$1,480	$2,360–$3,140	$3,540–$4,700	$6,600–$8,800
Shenzhen (SZX) → Paris (CDG)	3–7 days	$1,140–$1,500	$2,400–$3,200	$3,600–$4,780	$6,700–$8,950
Guangzhou (CAN) → Lyon (LYS)	4–7 days	$1,160–$1,540	$2,440–$3,260	$3,660–$4,880	$6,800–$9,100

Air bills the greater of actual and volumetric weight — length × width × height in centimetres divided by 6,000 — so a carton of 80 × 60 × 60 cm weighing 9 kg bills at 48 kg.

Rail to France: The Middle Band

The China–Europe Railway Express runs from Yiwu, Chengdu, Chongqing and Xi’an through Kazakhstan into Poland and Germany, with French destinations served by block train to Duisburg or Łódź plus a one- to two-day truck leg. Door to door to Paris or Lyon lands at 22–30 days, between sea and air on both transit and cost.

How Long DDP Shipping from China to France Takes, Segment by Segment

One number hides four clocks. This is where the days sit on a Q4 2026 shipment to Paris.

Mode	Pickup and Consolidation	Main Leg	French Clearance	Final Delivery	Door to Door
Sea FCL	2–4 days	25–38 days	1–3 days	1–3 days, 2–4 to the south and west	30–40 days
Sea LCL	4–7 days	27–38 days	1–4 days	2–4 days	32–44 days
Rail	3–5 days	16–22 days	1–3 days	1–3 days	22–30 days
Air	1–2 days	1–2 days	1–2 days	1–3 days	6–9 days
Express	Same day	3–5 days	Included in transit	1–2 days	3–7 days

Services to Le Havre and Fos sail weekly, and the cut-off for a Shanghai or Ningbo booking falls five to seven days before departure; miss it and the cargo waits a week. Cargo routed around the Cape of Good Hope instead of Suez adds 10–14 days at sea. At the destination the clock that costs money is free time: both ports commonly grant five to seven free days before demurrage and detention start at roughly $60–$200 per container per day, and inland delivery adds one to three days to Paris, one to two to the Rhône corridor and two to four to Brittany or the Alps.

Our Industry Insight: The gap between two shipments on the same vessel is almost never the sailing — it is the file. We see three to five days lost after arrival for invoice lines whose description does not match the TARIC code, a bill of lading consignee that differs from the party named on the entry, and wooden pallets without ISPM 15 marks. All three are free to fix in China and expensive to fix at Le Havre.

Duty, 20% TVA and the French Landed Cost, Line by Line

The customs value is the CIF value — goods plus freight plus insurance — and duty runs at the MFN rate your TARIC code carries: commonly 0–2.7% on machinery, 0–2% on consumer electronics, 0–5.6% on furniture and around 12% on apparel. Import TVA at the standard 20% then applies to the customs value plus duty.

Charge	Q4 2026 position	Calculated on
Customs duty	MFN by TARIC code; commonly 0–12%, machinery 0–2.7%, apparel around 12%	CIF value
Anti-dumping or countervailing duty	Applies where an EU measure covers your product and Chinese origin	Customs value, on top of duty
Import TVA	20% standard; 10%, 5.5% and 2.1% on listed goods	CIF value plus duty plus charges to destination

A 20ft container to Paris, line by line. General cargo, FOB Ningbo at $8,500:

Line	Amount
Goods value on the invoice	$8,500
Ocean freight and pickup (1 × 20ft)	$1,920
EU duty at 3% on the CIF value	$313
Import TVA at 20% on $10,733	$2,147
Brokerage and delivery to Paris	Included
Landed cost under DDP	$12,880 — 52% above the goods value
Same shipment excluding recoverable TVA	$10,733 — 26% above the goods value

300 kg of electronics by DDP air to Lyon. Goods $18,000, freight $2,750 at the 300 kg break:

Line	Amount
Goods value on the invoice	$18,000
Air freight, 300 kg chargeable (PVG–CDG)	$2,750
Duty at 2% on the CIF value	$415
Import TVA at 20% on $21,165	$4,233
Clearance and delivery to Lyon	$560
Landed cost under DDP	$25,958 — 44% above the goods value
Same shipment excluding recoverable TVA	$21,725 — 21% above the goods value

A VAT-registered importer treats the 20% as a timing item; everyone else pays it permanently. The Freight Cost Calculator turns a weight, a CBM and a route into a first estimate.

Who Files the Entry — and Whether the 20% TVA Comes Back

Most published guides still describe French import VAT the pre-2022 way, and this is the detail that separates a French DDP quote from a Spanish one.

Since 1 January 2022, import TVA in France is self-assessed. The tax is no longer collected by the Douane at the border but declared and deducted on the importer’s own VAT return — the CA3, monthly or quarterly — with no cash advance and no prior authorisation. The base is pre-filled from the customs entries and the return falls due on the 24th of the following month. Sources: douane.gouv.fr — TVA à l’importation and impots.gouv.fr.

A French VAT-registered importer therefore never funds the 20% at the port — base and deduction land in the same return, so on our $2,147 example the cash cost is close to zero — while an importer without a French VAT number, or a private individual, still pays at clearance. Under DDP the forwarder normally clears under its own customs structure: a declaration still exists, a named importer of record is still accountable for classification, value and origin, and that is whose return carries the deduction.

The platform changed too: DELTA IE replaced DELTA-G and DELTA-X, with the export leg live since 4 November 2025 and the import leg rolling out through 2026. A forwarder quoting “DELTA” with no version is describing its own paperwork, not yours. Reference: DELTA IE — volet import.

One more 2026 change matters for sellers without an EU entity: the représentation fiscale ponctuelle — the one-off fiscal representation that let a non-EU company clear under regime 42 on a forwarder’s French VAT number — ended on 1 January 2026. The remaining routes are the seller’s own French VAT number or an Import Agent established in France carrying joint liability.

Real-Life Scenario: A seller of home goods shipped DDP into a French 3PL for about eighteen months and treated the 20% TVA as a cost. When the company registered for French VAT and asked us to recover the tax already paid, we could not: the entries had been filed under our own customs structure, so the deduction belonged to the declarant. We re-quoted as DAP with the entry in the buyer’s own EORI. The freight line rose a few percent, the TVA base moved onto the buyer’s CA3 with no cash outlay, and the landed cost fell by the tax amount. On French lanes the question is not how much TVA applies — it is whose return it lands on.

Ports, Airports and Delivery Zones: Le Havre, Fos, CDG and the Overseas Departments

Gateway	Transit	Serves	What Changes the Cost
Le Havre	25–34 days	Paris, Île-de-France, Normandy, the north	First import port of call on the North European rotation; HAROPA moved 3.2 million TEU in 2025, and Seine barges reach the Paris terminals in one to two days
Fos-sur-Mer (Marseille)	28–38 days	Lyon, the Rhône corridor, Provence	About 470 km to Lyon — the shortest inland leg for the south
Dunkirk	25–34 days	The north, plus Benelux overflow	Secondary gateway; useful when Le Havre slots are tight
Paris CDG (air)	1–2 days	National distribution, fashion, eCommerce	Europe’s largest air-cargo gateway, close to two million tonnes a year

Two destination rules catch sellers who treat France as one market. Corsica sits inside the EU customs and VAT territory and clears like the mainland, with a sea crossing of one to three days on top. The overseas departments differ: Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion apply octroi de mer and TVA at 8.5% instead of 20%, while Guyane and Mayotte apply no TVA at all. A DDP quote to “France” that does not name the postcode is not a quote.

For the fuller cost picture — express pricing, FCL against LCL break-even and the tax stack — see our Shipping Cost from China to France: 2026 Rates, TVA & Landed Cost guide.

French Compliance Gates Before Loading: REP, Triman, CE and ICS2

Most avoidable French delays are created in China, before the container is loaded: these decide whether the entry is released in one to three days or waits for a documentary check or a physical visit.

Item	Detail That Causes Delays
EORI and SIREN/SIRET	The EORI is the customs identifier and the SIRET the French establishment; registration runs through the Douane and can take weeks
REP registration and IDU	Since 1 January 2022 every producer in a producer-responsibility scheme — packaging, electricals, batteries, furniture, textiles, toys — holds an ADEME IDU per scheme and quotes it in its terms and on its website. Marketplaces verify it.
Triman and sorting information	Required on products placed on the French market for households, with sorting instructions attached
CE marking and French labelling	CE and a Declaration of Conformity for regulated categories; consumer products also need French instructions and warnings
ICS2 entry summary declaration	Filed by the carrier or forwarder before loading; missing or wrong ENS data stops the cargo at the border, not at the warehouse
Anti-dumping check	EU measures cover many Chinese-origin groups — e-bikes, ceramic tableware, solar glass, certain steel products; the rate sits on top of normal duty

The last line is the one no freight quote shows you. Check the TARIC code in the EU’s Access2Markets database before you book. On REP, registration is free but the eco-contribution is not, and Amazon.fr will hold a listing without a valid IDU — the ADEME register is the check: filieres-rep.ademe.fr.

FAQ: DDP Shipping from China to France

What does DDP shipping from China to France include?

Supplier pickup, export clearance, freight by sea, air or rail, the French import entry on DELTA IE, customs duty, import TVA per the agreed terms and final delivery. Excluded unless quoted: inspection and storage, demurrage, compliance work and insurance.

How much does DDP shipping from China to France cost in Q4 2026?

Freight bands start around $11–$15 per kg at the 100 kg air break, $150–$260 per CBM by sea LCL and $1,300 for a 20ft container to Le Havre. Add duty, 20% TVA, clearance and delivery: an $8,500 container at 3% duty lands near $12,900.

How long does DDP shipping from China to France take?

Sea FCL runs 30–40 days door to door, LCL 32–44, rail 22–30, air 6–9 and express 3–7. Add 10–14 days if your vessel is routed around the Cape of Good Hope, and two to four days for Brittany or the overseas departments.

Do I need an EORI and a SIREN number to import into France?

Yes. The EORI is the customs identifier and the SIREN/SIRET identifies the French establishment; without both the entry cannot be filed in your name. Registration can take weeks, which is why first shipments often go DDP.

Can I reclaim the 20% TVA if the forwarder clears under its own EORI?

Only the importer of record can deduct it. Since 2022 the tax is self-assessed on the CA3 with no cash advance, which makes it easy to recover — for the party named on the entry. If you are VAT-registered in France, agree before booking whose EORI the entry will use.

Is there a EUR 150 duty-free threshold for imports into France?

For commercial consignments, no. Below EUR 150 only the duty is waived; TVA has applied from the first euro since July 2021. Since 1 July 2026 a flat EU duty of EUR 3 per item category also applies below that line.

Can you deliver DDP to Amazon.fr warehouses, Corsica and the overseas departments?

Yes — Amazon.fr fulfilment centres, business addresses, 3PLs and residential addresses. FBA cargo needs labels, FNSKU and pallet specification, a booked appointment and a valid REP IDU before listing. Corsica clears as mainland France with an extra sea crossing; Guadeloupe, Martinique and Réunion add octroi de mer and 8.5% TVA.

Conclusion: Get the All-In Number Right Before You Book

DDP shipping from China to France is one figure on paper and four lines underneath it: freight, duty, TVA and delivery. Check which of the four a quote contains, the declared value the tax was calculated on, and whose EORI will appear on the DELTA IE entry — because in France that last detail decides whether the 20% is a cost or a deduction.

Send the product, the weight or CBM, the pickup city and the French postcode, and we will price the all-in figure with each line shown separately, as soon as possible.

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