Asia to Mexico Shipping Rates: Finding the Best Prices - Desteia

Asia to Mexico Shipping Rates: Finding the Best Prices

Asia-Mexico commerce is on the rise. We looked at current costs to suggest some key strategies to make your routes more efficient.

Jose Luis Sabau | March 10, 2025 | Macro

Mexico is becoming a global hub for trade. As the U.S. and other Western nations seek to replace China as a direct provider, the Latin American nation has become a key destination for foreign capital—a process commonly known as nearshoring.

A great part of this change has come with an increased number of trade routes that connect Mexico with other developing economies across the globe. Most prominently, with Asia, which recently went from accounting 28.3% of major shipping routes to and from the country to nearly 35%. But just how much does it cost for foreign goods to enter Mexico and what’s the cheapest alternative to do so?

In this essay, we go deeper into understanding how Mexican trade works—how expensive it is and which are the key strategies to make your global operations in Mexico cheaper. We use Asia as a case study since it is both the fastest growing trade corridor for Mexico outside the US border, and one for which maritime data is readily available. This allowed us to aggregate a great number of financial data points to accurately depict the cost of shipping from Asia to Mexico.

More specifically, we are focusing on five ports in particular: Shanghai, Ningbo, Qingdao, Busan, and Hong Kong. These five ports account for a considerable portion of Mexico’s ocean routes. In fact, in a previous research piece for Desteia, we found that Busan was the most connected port to Mexico with 26 routes leading to Mexican ports. Shanghai was the fourth most connected with 19 routes. Adding the other three ports considered in this analysis, we get a total of 83 connections to Mexico via ocean trade.

Main Asian Ports Shipping to Mexico (2025)

A map showing the main ports in Asia shipping to Mexico

Taking these five ports as a reference, we then looked at the current market rates from thirteen ocean carriers. In particular, we looked at the cost of shipping different types of containers to the two largest ports in Mexico: Lazaro Cardenas and Manzanillo. In total, we considered 210 shipping routes connecting these five ports to Mexico. As shown in the diagram below, there was a clear tendency of shipping Chinese cargo to Mexico through Shanghai which accounted for over 50% of all ports considered—not a surprising fact when considering Shanghai is the busiest port in the world. It was followed by Ningbo with 21.9% of routes analyzed and Qingdao with 13.81% of routes.

Number of Ocean Routes to Mexico from Top Asian Ports (2025)

A pie chart showing the number of ocean routes to Mexico from top Asian ports in 2025

We considered four types of containers for this study: 20ft standard containers (20GP), 40ft standard containers (40GP), 40ft high containers (40HQ), and 40ft non-operational reefers (40NOR). In the figure below, we share the average price for shipping each of these containers from Asia to Mexico. As the graph shows, the cheapest container is the 20ft standard container followed by a 40ft non operational reefer. Not surprisingly, 40ft containers are higher in value as they offer more volume—although, it is worth noting that a 40ft high is the exact same price as a standard 40ft container despite having more volume.

Average Cost to Ship a Container to Mexico from Asia by Container Type (2025)

(in USD per container)

A bar chart showing the average cost to ship a container to Mexico from Asia by container type in 2025

The above graph also suggests a very important fact about the price of shipping cargo. The price of shipping is not proportional to the volume being shipped. Although a 40ft container is more expensive as a whole than a 20ft container, they are actually much cheaper when you consider the actual volume. We can extrapolate this from the previous figures. A 40ft container has double the volume of a 20ft container yet it costs just 10% more in shipping fees.

Cost per Volume to Ship from Asia to Mexico by Container Type

(in USD per cubic meter)

A bar chart showing the cost per volume to ship from Asia to Mexico by container type in USD per cubic meter

Data thus far has focused on the abstract routes connecting Asia and Mexico. However, there are great cost savings opportunities if we consider the actual ports being used to ship cargo to Mexico. In the map below, we plotted the average price to ship a container from the top Asian ports to Mexico—irrespective of container type. As the map shows, the most expensive origin port when shipping to Mexico is Qingdao with an average cost of $2,100 per container. In second place we find Shanghai with an average cost of $1,870.8 per container, followed by Busan with $1,570.8 per container, Ningbo with $1,525.6, and, finally, Hong Kong with $1,503.6.

Average Cost to Ship to Mexico from Top Asian Ports (2025)

(in USD per container)

The above map already has some meaningful insights in terms of potentially favorable routes when shipping from Asia to Mexico. The clearest example would be to ship cargo from Ningbo rather than Shanghai since the two ports are close neighbors—less than a two hour drive from one another. Just by shipping from Ningbo instead of Shanghai, a company could save up to $300 per container. A similar argument could be made for shifting cargo from Qingdao to Shanghai or Ningbo which would save $400 or $700 per container respectively—although, Qingdao is eight hours away from Shanghai, likely resulting in considerable transportation fees as a result of the re-route.

Furthermore, as we saw in terms of aggregate data, there are clear differences in the cost of shipping when considering different container types. In the figure below, we break down the cost of shipping from all five ports considered by container type. Again, we see the same pattern where 40ft containers are slightly more expensive than their 20ft counterparts despite having double the volume. In all cases, it costs the same to ship a 40ft high container and a 40ft standard container.

Cost to Ship to Mexico from Top Asian Ports by Container Type

(in USD per container)

A series of bar charts showing the cost to ship to Mexico from top Asian ports by container type in 2025

SHANGHAI

NINGBO

BUSAN

QINGDAO

HONG KONG

There are also some variations when it comes to the destination port in Mexico albeit to a much smaller degree. We also looked at the difference in costs by carrier. In doing so, we actually found the greatest source of variance for companies shipping cargo. As shown in the figure below, costs in shipping can vary by as much as $1,000. ZIM, the most expensive carrier, had an average cost per container of $2,453.33—irrespective of container type. Meanwhile, YML—the cheapest carrier for Asia-Mexico trade—charges just $1,462.68.

Cost to Ship a Container from Asia to Mexico by Carrier (2025)

(in USD per container)

The above research helps understand one of the fastest growing trade corridors in the world: that between Mexico and China. Moreover, it demonstrates that, by looking at aggregate data, companies can better plan for the best route to meet their supply chain needs. In the end, it’s all about how you use data to make your logistics operations more efficient.