In a few months, America and many more countries will celebrate the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020. In America, we will celebrate this with champagne, a ball dropping in Times Square, and parties across the country. Across the Ocean, China and other Asian nations will celebrate their first of the year on January 25th. The new year marks the “year of the rat” and the end of the “year of the pig”. In China, it is customary to celebrate the lunar new year with a fifteen daylong festival from New Year’s Eve (January 24th) to two full weeks later (February 8th).

How Chinese New Year Affects Businesses?

In China, the holiday season around Chinese New Year can keep businesses and factories shut down for three to four weeks, so workers can travel back to their homes and enjoy the festivals with their families. Similar to the chunk of time in America between Christmas and New Years it is common for entire companies to take a 10 day period of time off to allow for celebration. This can have a large effect on freight forwarding, imports, exports, and general trade with China. There is a bit of a domino effect throughout China during festivities that can halt trade, especially for companies that rely on China for manufacturing goods.

Freight Forwarding & Trade With China

Before and after the break factories will often overproduce to make up for the lost time during the holiday. Even with this uptick in production, it is expected that air freight and ocean freight prices will increase during the New Year celebration due to high demand. China’s holiday season has a large effect on shipping lanes from Asia to Europe, the Americas, and Africa. Even before the holiday season begins, ports will face congestion due to companies trying to get shipments out before the season begins.

Capacity Limits During Chinese New Year

With the increase of E-commerce worldwide there is an increased demand for Chinese products to be shipped especially around the holiday season, and with the congestion of shipments and ports in China during the weeks leading up to their New Years celebration, it has become common for the demand to exceed capacity limits for air and ocean freight, which causes backlog shipments. That is why working with an experienced freight forwarder is vital in the late seasons.

Contact Bruning International

The logistics team at Bruning International can help your company stay ahead of Chinese New Year and keep import shipments on schedule, however, we want to make sure companies are aware of pricing and scheduling concerns that surround these holiday periods. Contact Bruning International to learn more.