How long can goods stay in a Chinese bonded warehouse?
It depends on the facility, and the periods come from three different instruments. Goods may stay one year in a bonded warehouse (Article 22) and two years in a B-type bonded logistics centre (Article 24), each extendable by up to one year with customs approval. A comprehensive bonded zone sets no storage limit (Article 33).
“Bonded warehouse” is used loosely for four kinds of facility, and the storage clock is the clearest difference between them. An operator will call any of them bonded. Which one it actually runs decides how long your stock may wait before tax is paid, and the answer ranges from one year to no limit at all.
The four storage periods
| Facility | Storage period | Extension | Set by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bonded warehouse(保税仓库) | 1 year | Up to 1 year with customs agreement | GACC Order 105, as amended by Order 263, Article 22 |
| A-type bonded logistics centre(保税物流中心（A型）) | 1 year | Up to 1 year with customs agreement | GACC Order 129, Article 21 |
| B-type bonded logistics centre(保税物流中心（B型）) | 2 years | Up to 1 year with customs agreement | GACC Order 130, Article 24 |
| Comprehensive bonded zone(综合保税区) | No limit | Not needed | GACC Order 256, Article 33, unless another law or regulation provides otherwise |
Why the A-type and B-type centres have different clocks
This is the single most common error in English-language material on the subject, and it comes from treating “bonded logistics centre” as one thing. It is two. The A-type and B-type Measures were issued on the same day as separate orders, and they set different periods on purpose: an A-type centre is operated by one enterprise for its own and its clients’ goods, while a B-type is a closed park in which multiple enterprises operate.2,3 If a quotation says “the logistics centre gives you two years”, the question to ask is which type, because the answer is two years only for a B-type.
Both Measures were amended by a General Administration of Customs order in late 2024, which is sometimes cited as having changed the periods. It did not. That order made conformity edits to the articles on the exchange rate and the date used for duty purposes, and left both storage articles untouched and unrenumbered.
What else differs between them
- A bonded warehouse is for storage. Packing, grading and classifying, adding shipping marks, splitting and assembling are permitted as simple processing, and substantial processing is not. Stored goods may not be sold, transferred, mortgaged, pledged, subjected to a lien, put to another use or otherwise dealt with without customs approval (Article 20).1
- A B-type centre does more. Bonded storage of import and export goods and other goods on which customs formalities are unfinished, simple circulation processing and value-added services, global procurement and international distribution, entrepôt trade and international transit, and other international logistics business customs approves (Article 15).3
- A comprehensive bonded zone does the most. Research and development, processing, manufacturing and remanufacturing, testing and repair, storage, logistics distribution, finance leasing, cross-border e-commerce, product display, international entrepôt trade, international transit, port operations and bonded futures delivery (Article 5).4
A self-use bonded warehouse holds only its operator’s own goods. If your stock is going into someone else’s bonded warehouse, it has to be a public-use one. Ask which type of facility it is, and under which order it is licensed, before the contract rather than after the container arrives. The answer also fixes your storage clock.
Is there really no limit in a comprehensive bonded zone?
Almost. Article 33 of the comprehensive bonded zone Measures reads in full: unless laws or regulations provide otherwise, goods within the zone are not subject to a storage period.4 The qualifier is worth carrying, because it means the zone itself imposes no clock while something else still might for a particular category of goods.
You may also meet a rule that goods stored for more than two years in a zone must be filed with customs each year. That rule was real and it is no longer in force. It sat at Article 37 of the interim Measures for bonded port areas, a different and now superseded facility type, and Article 47 of the comprehensive bonded zone Measures repealed those Measures with effect from 1 April 2022.4,5 Nothing in the current Measures imposes an annual filing tied to length of storage.
When the time runs out
By the end of the period, goods have to be imported with the tax paid, or taken back out of China. Bonded goods whose storage period has expired, where no extension was applied for in time or the extended period has also run out, and which are neither re-exported nor converted to import, are dealt with by customs under the rules for goods not declared within the time limit (Article 27).1 That is a disposal process rather than a penalty notice, and getting the goods back out of it is neither quick nor cheap.
For slow-moving or seasonal lines a one-year clock is a real constraint rather than a formality, and it is often the deciding difference between a warehouse and a zone. Storage also defers tax without changing what the goods must carry once they are released into the domestic market: labelling, registration and any first-import requirement attach on release, not on arrival.
Where the stock is going to be sold to Chinese consumers one order at a time rather than cleared in bulk, the applicable channel is 1210 bonded e-commerce import, which runs inside these same facilities but under its own rules. The wider comparison is in selling into China through a bonded zone.
Want this done rather than explained? Market Entry & Structure Advisory From US$900, 2–3 weeks. See the service Sources
- Provisions of the Customs of the PRC on Bonded Warehouses and the Goods Stored Therein (GACC Order No. 105, as amended by Order No. 263, in force 1 July 2023): Article 20 (simple processing only), Article 22 (one-year period) and Article 27 (overdue goods) (State Council Gazette, retrieved 21 September 2026)
- Interim Measures of the Customs of the PRC for A-type Bonded Logistics Centres (GACC Order No. 129, as amended 2024): Article 21, a one-year storage period extendable by up to one year (MOFCOM law database, retrieved 21 September 2026)
- Interim Measures of the Customs of the PRC for B-type Bonded Logistics Centres (GACC Order No. 130, as amended): Article 15 (permitted activities) and Article 24, a two-year storage period extendable by up to one year (gov.cn, retrieved 21 September 2026)
- Measures of the Customs of the PRC for Comprehensive Bonded Zones (GACC Order No. 256), in force 1 April 2022: Article 5 (permitted activities), Article 33 (no storage period unless laws or regulations provide otherwise) and Article 47 (repealing the bonded port area Measures) (State Council Gazette, retrieved 21 September 2026)
- Interim Measures of the Customs of the PRC for Bonded Port Areas, Article 37: the repealed rule requiring an annual filing for goods stored more than two years (State Council Gazette, retrieved 21 September 2026)
All sources checked 21 September 2026. This page is general information, not legal, tax or customs advice. Requirements vary by product, market and circumstance. Confirm your own position before acting.
