Chinese New Year is a festival in China that lasts around 3 weeks from late January through mid-February. Because of this, more people will order before the holiday, making it a very hectic time of the year.

Preparing for 2023’s Chinese New Year

The holiday begins with the new moon and lasts until the following full moon, making it also known as the Lunar New Year. It’s a long held holiday meant to usher in a new year of prosperity and good fortune.

The holiday is the most important one celebrated in China, and its effects cause disruption for the supply chain process.

Here are some tips you can use to help you work around the holiday:


  1. Start Early

    The best way to prepare for the Chinese New Year is to start as early as possible on your order.

    The Chinese New Year and the months leading up to it is a very busy time for all. Factories will be slammed with orders as people will want to get their orders shipped before the holiday. This can lead to longer production times and higher shipping costs.

    If you are working on a new product, then time is even more precious. Sample production will add more time to your order and sometimes molds or tooling.


  2. Shipping

    The more orders being shipped out means that the shipping rates will increase. This means that you’ll likely want to go with sea shipping as air shipping rates will be very high. Also, as the orders pile on in China, the reservation time for sea vessels will also increase, making it take longer to get sea shipments reserved, so the sooner you get your orders in place and finished, the better it will be.


  3. Inventory

    It would be ideal to make sure you have enough stock of your product to last you from January through February and early March. When factories come back from the holiday they will be busy with new orders and working to catch up from orders not completed from before the holiday, so the best time to place a new order is usually mid-March, if not a little later.