Feburary 16, 2018
The Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday in Asian countries, with companies taking anywhere from two to four weeks off.
Production Schedules
Chinese factories have packed production schedules in the runup to the shutdown for the holiday, which will be at the end of this month. As we get closer to February 16, it will become increasingly difficult to get new quotes as the manufacturers will be focused on getting the last shipments out the door.
Factory Shutdown in China
The beginning of February, the workers on the East Coast, which is where most of China’s industrial base is located, will begin their migration home to the provinces inland. Hundreds of millions of them will pack the planes, trains and automobiles heading home.
Some factories will have little more than management left to get final shipments out. Then most factories in China will be closed from at least February 12 – 24 . Some will take the entire month off.
As the factories in China start again, toward the end of February, their workers will trickle in at their own pace. The factory’s employees can take another week or two to return (some may not come back at all) which means it can still take them until March 5 before they’re back to full production capacity. While they were gone, the order pipeline will have filled up all over again.
Place an Order
All of this means that if you need product from China by April or May, the time to place those orders is now. Plan extra time if you have a new product requiring new molds or tooling.
Photo credit: Anon Punyod
