Shipping times is an important thing to keep in mind when planning a new board game project. Many publishers aim to have releases ready for specific events such as a board game convention or a major holiday. New releases at shows like Gencon or Essen Spiel are a great way to kick off sales. And generate buzz and excitement for a new game. But shipping can take longer than expected or planned for. And each year, publishers are forced to send copies over via air freight to have games to sell. While the rest are still on the boat. Shipping times can be affected by a lot of different things and over the years have gotten shorter and longer depending on various factors.

What affects shipping times

Several factors can influence sea-freight shipping times between the port of departure in China and destinations worldwide. The biggest variable is the sailing route and carrier schedule: direct services are faster, while transshipment routes add several days due to unloading, reloading and potential waiting times at intermediate ports. Port congestion at either origin or destination can slow down vessel berthing and container handling, especially during peak (holiday) seasons. Weather conditions such as typhoons in East Asia or storms in the Pacific and Atlantic can also delay vessel departures or force route adjustments.

Beyond the sailing itself, the overall timeline is affected by blank sailings, capacity reductions, canal restrictions (such as Panama or Suez traffic limitations), and global supply-chain disruptions. On the operational side, delays may occur during customs clearance, container availability, trucking capacity, and warehouse handling. The quantity and type of container load also influences the overall timeline. Full-container-load (FCL) tends to be faster/more direct. Less-than-container-load (LCL) often adds 3-7 days due to consolidation and extra handling.

Below is an overview of average reported shipping times, as of December 2025. 

Here is a breakdown of the different terms used:

OTI median = Flexport Ocean Timeliness Indicator. This means the time from factory-ready → destination-port departure (2-week trailing median).
Sea transit (port-to-port) = Typical scheduled FCL sailing times from Ningbo.
Planning band = Our recommended time to calculate your schedule with. This is from the factory → destination port, based on OTI + carrier schedules.

 

*sources: Flexport, Freightos, FreightAmigo, FluentCargo, Agora, Maskura Logistics. Please check directly with your forwarder/logistics company for their estimated times and most recent information.

Planning with enough buffer

We normally recommend using the conservative shipping time estimates in order to make sure there is enough buffer in case of delays or other setbacks. As there are many factors that influence the shipping duration, it is always best to check in with your logistics company multiple times during pre-production and mass production. Another area where time often gets lost is not aligning the mass production finish date with the shipping date. We recommend reaching out to your forwarder/logistics partner at these key points in the production process:

Recommended check in times

• Start of production. Boda Games will communicate our planned finish date to the customer. Boda Games will provide the customer with the packing plan. Customer informs logistics partner the planned production finish date.
• Early mass production copy. Boda Games assembles an early mass production copy and sends it to the customer, as well as inform the customer how many days we need for assembly and mass shipment preparation after receiving the mass production sample approval. The customer informs the logistics partner upon approval of the mass production sample and puts the logistics partner in contact with Boda Games. 
• Mass production assembly finish date. Customer checks with logistics partner if pickups from the Boda Games factory are arranged and confirms dates with logistics partner and subsequently informs Boda Games which party will come on what day to pick up what shipments. Alternatively, if Boda Games arranges transport to the port of departure, customer/logistics partner need to inform Boda Games by which date the games need to arrive at which port. 

By making sure all parties involved are contacted and aware of these key moments in the process, we can all save a lot of time and make sure those games get shipped out as soon as possible, so they can be with gamers instead of in a warehouse!