Sailing schedules from Cat Lai (HCMC) to Jebel Ali (Dubai)

Tan Cang Cat Lai sits on the Dong Nai River. The approach channel runs about 43 nautical miles, and the largest vessel it takes is 45,000 DWT. Mainline ships serving the Middle East cannot call, so containers go out on feeders to a transshipment port and move onto a mother vessel for Jebel Ali.

Maersk run about 1 sailings a week, with one or two transshipments. Check your booking and the mother-vessel connection date at the transshipment port, because a missed connection is the most common reason an ETA slips. Cat Lai gates often jam at peak hours, so deliver to the yard well before cut-off.

Expect 32 to 41 days in transit, depending on how many times the cargo is transshipped. Disruption in the Strait of Hormuz is the main risk to that estimate. Maersk has suspended several Gulf destinations. In the UAE it is accepting only Khor Fakkan, plus Jebel Ali by road or rail from the east coast. Your cargo may be discharged at Khor Fakkan or Fujairah and trucked to Jebel Ali under customs supervision.

Emergency Freight and the separate charge for vessels transiting Hormuz are surcharges tied to this disruption. The peak season surcharge (PSS) on Vietnam to UAE cargo is a different matter: Maersk has adjusted it from July 2026. Before you confirm a booking, check the routing, the discharge port and every surcharge.

Cashews, coffee, pepper, rice and processed food all fall under Dubai Municipality permits, and the declaration must attach the permit. Before the goods arrive, your consignee in Dubai has to register the product and get the label approved on the Dubai Municipality system. Each pack size is registered separately: a 100 g pack and a 200 g pack count as two products.

Labels must be in Arabic, or in Arabic with English. Production and expiry dates must be printed on the original label, not on a sticker. Goods with a shelf life of 3 months or less must show the date as day/month/year. An Arabic sticker is accepted only if it was approved in advance and applied before shipment. So print the label your consignee has approved and apply it at your warehouse in Vietnam before you load the container, not after the cargo arrives.

Fat and animal-derived ingredients must come from halal slaughter. A first-time registered product may be sampled for testing, and if the lab finds an ingredient that is not on the label, the shipment is rejected. The goods description and pack specification on your invoice and packing list must match the consignee's registration file.

LCL cargo is consolidated at a CFS warehouse in HCMC. An LCL shipment needs the same full document set as FCL: B/L, commercial invoice, C/O, packing list and D/O, plus a permit if the goods are regulated.

The consignee or a customs broker files electronically through Dubai Trade (Mirsal), and can file before the cargo arrives. The document set must reach customs within 14 days of the declaration processing date, and late submission costs AED 50 per day.

Shipments of AED 10,000 or more need the electronic invoice legalized through the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs eDAS system. Your UAE consignee does this, and the invoice must match the C/O. CEPA took effect on 3 February 2026: goods with a valid UAE-VN C/O get the preferential rate, and without one the consignee pays 5%.

Homexim books FCL and LCL ocean freight from Cat Lai, clears the goods for export and arranges inland container trucking. Each shipment has one named person in charge from start to finish. Quotes itemize freight, surcharges and local charges. Import clearance in the UAE is handled by your consignee or their UAE customs broker.