As the year of the Snake slithers round the corner and the year of the Dragon departs, Chinese New Year can have a significant impact on the shipping industry. Here’s how you can plan ahead…
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What is Chinese New Year?
Also known as Lunar New Year, it is the start of a new year in the lunar calendar. This falls on a different date each year, in 2025 it will fall on the 29th January.
The year of the snake represents wisdom, intelligence and transformation. It is the 6th animal in the 12 year cycle (more on Chinese New Year).
Lunar New Year is celebrated across Asia and can include celebrations with fireworks, eating symbolic foods, wearing the colour red and giving out money in envelopes to children.
During this time factories can be closed from 2-4 weeks as many people travel home to visit family members therefore, most of China is closed for at least 2 weeks to celebrate the holiday.
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How will this affect importing?
With Chinese New Year on the 29th January, factories are likely to be closed from the 20th January until around the 3rd February.
It is worth checking with your supplier what their opening hours are for this holiday as it will vary from factory to factory.
With closures guaranteed, shipping lines take advantage of this and tend to increase pricing before and after the Lunar holiday, they do this by taking vessels out of operation. To limit the chances of paying over the odds, it may be worth ordering your stock for the beginning of the year early to avoid the fight for space.
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How can I plan ahead?
It is important to ensure you take into account the 2 week closure when making orders around January time. Make sure to ask your supplier what their factory opening times are around the Lunar New Year so you can get your orders in with plenty of time.
The ports also in limited operation therefore try to ensure the ready date of your goods is not too close to the deadline. Doing so will also mean you will be paying premium for shipping as the rush of orders before the holiday coincide with shipping lines limiting their space.
We would recommend having your goods ready for the beginning of January to avoid any delays and have the best chance of paying a reasonable rate (as reasonable as can be in the current market).
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How can Shippo help?
We can help you plan ahead… if you have a deadline to meet or you’re worried that the Chinese holiday will affect your import, get in touch with us.
We can calculate when you’ll need to have your goods ready by to avoid the rush and meet your deadlines. We aim to make the process of shipping as simple as possible, so want you to be in the know to avoid delays or increased costs!
