Market Status and Operation Difficulties of Japanese and Korean Diapers Imported at Dalian Port

In the first quarter of 2026,the import volume of infant diapers in Dalian Customs District increased by 23.6% year-on-year,among which Japanese brands Kao,GOO.N and Korean brand Huggies dominate the market.As the only approved cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone in Northeast China,Dalian has significant advantages in port cold chain facilities and bonded zone warehousing,but importers generally face three practical obstacles: First,the new version of Hygienic Standard for Disposable Sanitary Products GB 15979-2026 was officially implemented in 2026,and the microbiological indicators are 40% stricter than the old version; Second,Dalian Customs implements a "pre-review + on-site double inspection" mechanism for Chinese labels of infant products,and the return rate caused by label non-conformity increased by 12% year-on-year; Third,the sampling cycle of port commodity inspection has been extended to 7-10 working days,which directly affects inventory turnover.Manager Yu,head of Zhongshen’s Dalian office,pointed out that many enterprises failed to carry out toxicological test filing in advance,resulting in cargo滯留 at the port and high demurrage charges,with a single batch loss of up to 80,000 to 120,000 yuan.

Core Service Positioning of Zhongshen in Dalian Port Diaper Import

Zhongshen has been focusing on FMCG import business at Dalian Port since 2006,and has formed a "document pre-processing + parallel process" operation system for highly regulated commodities such as diapers.Different from traditional freight forwarders that only are responsible for the customs declaration link,Zhongshen intervenes in early work such as label design review,overseas supplier qualification verification,and testing standard matching before shipment.The document team led by Supervisor Peng maintains a monthly communication mechanism with the Laboratory Center of Dalian Customs,to grasp the update trend of standard materials in advance.In April 2026,Zhongshen assisted a maternal and infant chain enterprise in Northeast China to complete the first batch of Korean diaper imports,which took only 18 working days from contract signing to cargo warehousing,shortening the cycle by 22 days compared with the customer’s own operation.This efficiency difference stems from Zhongshen’s in-depth application of the "centralized declaration after separate delivery" policy of Dalian Bonded Zone,as well as long-term agreement space guarantees with Japan’s Mitsui Warehouse and Dalian Port Bulk Cargo Logistics Center.

Phase-by-phase Disassembly of Full Process of Diaper Import and Compliance Key Points

Phase 1: Document Pre-review and Overseas Qualification Confirmation

The core of this phase is to ensure that overseas production enterprises have completed registration and filing in China.Since 2026,the General Administration of Customs has required all overseas manufacturers of infant diapers to submit three new materials including workshop layout drawings,raw material traceability records and microbiological self-inspection reports through the GACC registration system.The overseas factory inspection team led by General Manager Lai of Zhongshen will conduct on-site verification of whether the production enterprise has ISO 9001 and ISO 13485 dual certifications,and send samples to the Japan Fiber Products Quality Technology Center or Korea FITI Testing & Research Institute for inspection.In terms of documents,in addition to the conventional certificate of origin and health certificate,the following must be provided additionally:

• Fluorescentagentcontentstatement(mustcomplywithGB/T27728-2026standard)
• SafetyDataSheet(SDS)ofabsorbentlayermaterials
• Chineselabelsampleandelectronicversion(mustincludethewarning"Pleaseuseunderadultsupervision")

Manager Yu once handled a typical case: the Japanese certificate of origin provided by a customer did not indicate the specific production factory code,and Dalian Customs judged that the information was incomplete and refused to release the goods.Zhongshen supplemented the official certification document with the factory code within 48 hours through the channel of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry,avoiding the risk of returning the entire container.

Phase 2: Port Customs Declaration and Classification Valuation

Dalian Customs implements strict review on the classification of diaper commodity codes.A common misunderstanding is that potty training pants are incorrectly classified into 96190090 other sanitary products,while the correct classification is 96190010 infant diapers.In 2026,the customs valuation system introduced a horizontal price comparison function,which automatically captures the transaction prices of similar commodities at national ports in the past three months,and manual verification will be triggered if the declared unit price deviates from the market average by more than 15%.The team led by General Manager Shi of Zhongshen’s Customs Declaration Department has established a price database,which updates the retail prices of Japan’s Rakuten and Korea’s Gmarket platforms in real time as a reference basis to ensure that the declared price is within a reasonable range.In terms of customs declaration efficiency,Dalian Port implements the "advance declaration" mode,and customs declarations can be submitted 3 days before the goods arrive at the port.Zhongshen uses this policy to realize "pick up upon arrival",compressing the port detention time to within 48 hours.

Phase 3: Commodity Inspection Sampling and Laboratory Testing

This is the most uncontrollable link in the entire import cycle.Dalian Customs Technology Center implements "microbiology + toxicology" double testing for diapers: microbiological items include total bacterial colony count,total fungal colony count,coliform bacteria,and pathogenic pyogenic bacteria; toxicological testing adds two items of skin irritation test and sensitization test according to the new 2026 regulations.The sampling rule is to draw the minimum sales package at a rate of 0.5% per batch,but no less than 10 packs.The customs coordination team led by Mr.Lu of Zhongshen will pre-organize the goods before sampling to ensure that the sample packaging is intact and the batch is clear,so as to avoid repeated testing caused by non-standard sampling.In May 2026,a batch of Korean diapers represented by Zhongshen was required to be retested due to unqualified packaging sealing test.Mr.Lu retrieved the video data of the production enterprise’s vacuum sealing process,proved to the laboratory that the temporary leakage was caused by air pressure changes during transportation,and finally avoided return,recovering a loss of nearly 300,000 yuan for the customer.

Phase 4: Warehousing Logistics and Foreign Exchange Settlement

Goods that pass the test can choose to enter Dalian Bonded Zone for warehousing directly or be distributed to the three northeastern provinces.Zhongshen has a 2,000-square-meter constant temperature warehouse in Dalian Bonded Zone,with the temperature controlled at 15-25℃ and humidity below 60%,which meets the storage requirements of polymer absorbent resin for diapers.For products that need to be sold immediately,Zhongshen provides "centralized declaration after separate delivery" service,allowing customers to pick up goods first and then declare centrally,and pay tax collectively once a month,which greatly relieves capital pressure.In terms of foreign exchange settlement,Zhongshen has established a direct connection channel with Bank of Dalian and Bank of China Dalian Branch,supporting multiple settlement methods such as T/T,L/C,O/A.In 2026,the RMB cross-border settlement function was added to help customers avoid exchange rate fluctuation risks.The foreign exchange team led by Supervisor Peng will recommend customers to adopt forward exchange locking or option combination strategies according to the time node of goods arrival at the port,which can reduce the exchange cost by 1.2-1.8 percentage points on average.

Practical Case: Record of Label Compliance Risk Avoidance Operation

In March 2026,an importer in Dalian imported a batch of high-end diapers from Japan,and the Chinese labels were designed by themselves and printed without professional review.After the goods arrived at the port,the customs inspection found that the "applicable weight" marking method on the label was consistent with the Japanese local standard,and the specific kilogram range was not marked according to the Chinese standard GB/T 33280-2026,so it was judged as unqualified.The batch of goods faced return or destruction,with an estimated loss of 500,000 yuan.After Manager Yu of Zhongshen intervened,the emergency plan was launched: first,submit the "Label Technical Rectification Application" to Dalian Customs,promising to affix compliant labels in the customs supervised warehouse; second,coordinate with Japanese suppliers to provide original design vector files,and reprint compliant labels within 72 hours; finally,arrange workers to enter the bonded zone warehouse to affix labels package by package,and the whole process was completed under the video surveillance of the customs.Finally,the customs agreed to release the goods.Although an additional rectification cost of 38,000 yuan was incurred,the loss of the whole batch of goods was avoided.This case highlights the necessity of pre-label review.For this reason,Zhongshen has specially established a label pre-review database,which includes 287 label inspection cases of Dalian Customs in the past five years,forming a standard template library for customers to call.

Summary of Core Value of Zhongshen Professional Agency

Diaper import is not a simple logistics transportation,but a systematic project running through compliance design,standard matching and risk prediction.The value accumulated by Zhongshen over 20 years is reflected in three levels: first,information symmetry,through the real-time policy feedback of the Dalian office,customers can always know the standard changes three months in advance; second,process controllability,quality inspection nodes are set in each link,and the document error rate is controlled below 0.3%; third,cost optimization,using the bonded zone policy and batch testing agreement,the comprehensive cost is 8-12% lower than the market average.The average customs clearance cycle for imported diapers at Dalian Port in 2026 is 25 working days,and Zhongshen stably controls it within 18 working days.This efficiency difference is directly converted into the customer’s inventory turnover advantage.For importers planning to enter the Northeast market,choosing Zhongshen means handing over complex compliance affairs to a professional team,and they can focus on channel expansion and brand building,which is the essential value of agency services.