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Container Track and Trace for Imports from China: A Real Use Case with Excel Automation

Container Track and Trace is essential when importing goods from China, where having full visibility can make or break your operations. Delays at ports, missing updates, and the need to juggle multiple carrier websites can quickly lead to unnecessary complexity and disruption.

In this article, we explore a practical use case of how a business leverages JsonCargo for container track and trace, which endpoint they depend on, and how they automate real-time updates directly into Excel.

The Business Scenario:

A mid-sized e-commerce company imports products from China to Europe on a weekly basis. They typically have:

50–150 containers in transit at any time
Multiple shipping lines (MSC, CMA CGM, COSCO, etc.)
A need to track ETAs, delays, and container status in one place

Before using an API, their workflow looked like this:

Manually checking carrier websites
Copy-pasting updates into Excel
Missing delays or outdated ETAs

Not scalable, not reliable.

The Solution: Container Tracking and Tracing via API:

They switched to using the JsonCargo API to centralize all tracking data.

The Endpoint They Used: Get Container Details:

GET /api/v1/containers/{tracking_number}?shipping_line={shipping_line_name}

This single endpoint returns everything they need:

Container status
Origin and destination
Last known location
ETA (final destination and next stop)
Vessel and voyage details

Instead of checking multiple sources, they now have one unified data feed.

Container Track and Trace in Practice?

Step 1: Store Container List

They maintain a simple Excel sheet with:

Container number
Shipping line
Internal reference (order, supplier, etc.)

Step 2: Pull Data Automatically

Using API calls, they fetch real-time data for each container.

Example request:

GET http://api.jsoncargo.com/api/v1/containers/MEDU9091004?shipping_line=MSC

Key fields they rely on:

container_status → operational updates
last_location → where the container currently is
eta_final_destination → planning inventory
last_updated → data freshness

Step 3: Sync with Excel

Instead of manual updates, they connect the API to Excel.

Every time they refresh the sheet:

Latest container status is updated
ETAs are recalculated automatically
Delays become immediately visible

We’ve already covered this step in detail here:Excel automation guide.

What It’s Like Tracking Containers from China?

Shipping from China involves long transit times and multiple touchpoints:

Origin ports like Shanghai, Ningbo, Shenzhen
Transshipment hubs
European destination ports

Without proper container tracking and tracing, you’re essentially blind between departure and arrival.

With API-based tracking:

You know exactly where containers are
You can anticipate delays earlier
You improve warehouse and inventory planning

Ready to Simplify Your Container Tracking?

If you’re still jumping between carrier websites or updating spreadsheets manually, it’s probably time to streamline things.

With the JsonCargo API, you can:

Track containers across multiple shipping lines in one place
Get structured data you can actually use
Plug tracking directly into your existing tools like Excel, ERPs, or dashboards

Start small, test it with a few containers, and build from there.