Customs bonded warehouses can be an effective strategy for deferring taxes and duties on imported goods, which is especially helpful in today’s volatile tariffs and global trade landscape. When choosing a customs bonded warehouse, location is one of the most important factors to consider. The right location will fit in seamlessly with your existing supply chain operations, allowing you to potentially reduce costs and maximize efficiency.
In this article, we’ll explain a couple factors for choosing the best location for your customs bonded warehouse along with additional factors to consider. We also highlight the appeal of focusing your search on the Savannah, Georgia area.
However, before we discuss the specifics of location, let’s quickly revisit what a customs bonded warehouse is and how it can be of value to importers.
A customs bonded warehouse is a secured, government-regulated building or other facility where imported goods can be stored, manipulated, or undergo manufacturing operations without the payment of custom duties until the imported goods are removed for consumption in the U.S. market. Imported products or materials can only be stored in customs bonded warehouses for up to five years, and duties may be completely avoided if the items are re-exported.
Customs bonded warehouses, which are supervised by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), place liability for the goods on the warehouse owner or operator through a surety bond.
Here are the requirements for establishing a customs bonded warehouse (applicable to the warehouse owner or operator):
Customs bonded warehouses can be beneficial because they allow businesses to defer duty payments, improve cash flow, and store goods for extended periods while awaiting distribution, processing, or re-export.
When selecting the best location for your customs bonded warehouse, it’s important to consider the following factors.
If you’re engaging in international trade, having your customs bonded warehouse located near a seaport that aligns with your existing logistics infrastructure is a must. Your customs bonded warehouse should be located close to where your import and export activities are already taking place, allowing for simplified transfer of goods that don’t cause extensive time or cost constraints.
If you’re just starting to build your logistics infrastructure or you’re considering relocating your import and storage operations, consider a port that checks off your key needs, such as deep-water access, increased berth capacity (allowing for reduced congestion and dwell time), and connectivity to various modes of transport.
The Savannah appeal:
Many importers are considering shifting their port networks to Savannah, Georgia due to the Port of Savannah’s recent and ongoing expansion projects as well as its high volume of imports from Asia. Additionally, the Port of Savannah is home to the largest single-terminal container facility of its kind in North America.
When planning for use of a customs bonded warehouse, you’ll need to consider ease of transport logistics–for products and materials coming both into and out of the warehouse. Once goods are released for U.S. consumption, it’s helpful to have a robust local network of interconnected transportation systems (including highway, railway, and airway options) that provide both intermodal and multimodal connectivity. This allows for smoother port-to-consumer logistics.
The Savannah appeal:
Savannah serves as an important gateway into the Southeast and the rest of the nation, allowing for delivery of goods to other parts of the U.S. within just a few days.
Savannah’s transportation infrastructure includes:
In addition to being strategically placed, your customs bonded warehouse should be:
Porter Logistics has access-controlled customs bonded warehousing in Savannah (and in Atlanta) that can help you improve your cash flow through deferred duties.
In addition to offering bonded storage, we also provide coordination with customs brokers as well as comprehensive documentation and compliance oversight to help ensure a simplified and successful process. As a full-service third-party logistics (3PL) company, we also offer a host of value-added services (such as transloading, cross-docking, container deconsolidation, and import and export support) to keep your operations running as efficiently as possible. Explore our certifications to understand our dedication to quality.
Learn more about Porter Logistics’ Savannah customs bonded warehousing and how it can support your import and export operations.
