Chinese New Year isn't a one-week pause — for 2026, it overlaps with Ramadan, and together the two holidays create roughly a five-week disruption to production, port operations and customs clearance running through late March. Distributors who plan around "one week off" are the ones who get caught.
What actually shuts down, and when
Factories typically wind down production one to two weeks before the holiday as workers travel home, and don't return to full capacity until one to two weeks after — a real production window of four to five weeks where output drops sharply. With Ramadan beginning shortly after Chinese New Year in 2026, ports and customs processing across several destination markets face compounding delays on top of the factory slowdown.
Rates spike before the goods even move
General Rate Increases and Peak Season Surcharges stack week over week through January as every shipper tries to clear goods before the shutdown, with past seasons seeing surcharges of $1,500–$2,500 per container layered on top of already-elevated base rates. Booking early doesn't just secure space — it avoids paying the surcharge premium that late bookings absorb.
The planning window that actually works
Orders meant to arrive in February or March need to be placed and in production by early-to-mid November at the latest, with final shipment booked before the pre-holiday rush begins in December. Anything ordered after that risks landing in the gap where factories are short-staffed, ports are congested and rates are at their yearly peak — all at once.
The shutdown is predictable and recurs every year; the only variable is whether a distributor's order calendar accounts for it before December, or finds out the hard way in February.