Planning

Chinese New Year Shipping: Plan Now or Pay Later

Every year the same thing happens: importers who didn't plan around Chinese New Year spend weeks out of stock while competitors who did clean up.

What actually shuts down

It isn't a single holiday — it's a multi-week slowdown:

2–3 weeks before: Factories stop taking new orders and rush existing ones. Quality often dips under pressure.
The holiday itself: Roughly two weeks. Factories, warehouses and freight effectively stop.
2–3 weeks after: Staggered restart. Many workers return late; some don't return at all, and factories rebuild capacity.

Realistically that's 4–6 weeks of disruption, not two.

The pre-holiday freight crunch

Before the shutdown, everyone ships at once. Container space tightens, rates rise, and ports congest. Shipments booked late in that window can sit waiting for space.

Your planning timeline

Timing	What to do
8–10 weeks before	Place bulk orders. Confirm the factory can produce before shutdown.
6 weeks before	Goods should be arriving at the China warehouse.
4 weeks before	Ship. After this, space and rates get difficult.
2 weeks before	Air freight only, at a premium.
During	Nothing moves.
2–4 weeks after	Expect delays and variable quality as factories restart.

Practical advice

Order early and hold stock. The carrying cost of extra inventory is almost always less than the cost of being out of stock for six weeks.

Confirm production dates in writing. “Before the holiday” means different things to you and your supplier. Get a date.

Watch quality in the rush period. Factories pushing to clear orders make more mistakes. Inspect the pre-holiday batch more carefully than usual.

Have an air-freight fallback. If a sea shipment misses the window, air freight at 5–7 days can rescue a stockout at a cost that's usually still cheaper than lost sales.

Don't forget Philippine-side timing

Even goods that ship before the shutdown clear Philippine customs on a normal schedule. Build the full 15–25 day warehouse-to-warehouse window into your plan — not just the sailing time.