Once a year, the world's manufacturing engine takes a holiday. Chinese New Year closes factories for one to several weeks, and the logistics wave it creates starts long before the first day of the holiday and ends long after the last.
The three phases
Before: everyone ships at once. Factories race to clear orders, freight capacity tightens on every mode, rates climb, and space sells out days or weeks ahead. During: production stops, and much of trucking, warehousing and export handling slows or pauses with it. After: the restart is gradual — workers return over weeks, backlogs clear in queue order, and quality pressure runs high as factories rush.
What it means for your shipments
- Cargo that misses the pre-holiday cutoff may effectively wait weeks, not days
- Every method is affected: ocean, air, rail and trucking all peak together
- Transit windows stretch — cargo type, route, customs inspection and carrier schedule all move them further in peak weeks
- Post-holiday production slots fill fast; February orders can become March cargo
The planning calendar
Count backward from the holiday. Confirm orders and production timelines months ahead; lock your cargo-ready dates early; book freight space before the rush instead of during it; and have documents finished so nothing waits on paperwork while space evaporates. If your stock must last through the closure and restart, size the pre-CNY shipment to cover the whole gap — including the slow restart, not just the official holiday dates.
Strategies that work
Split shipments help here too: a sea bulk load booked early, plus an air top-up reserved as insurance if timing slips. Consolidating suppliers before the holiday beats chasing three factories during the restart. And ask us for the realistic cutoffs on your lane for the current year — the honest dates, not the optimistic ones — because our 24/7 team tracks exactly how each corridor is filling as the holiday approaches.
