Spring Festival Shutdown

Chinese New Year falls on 6 Feb 2027. That year's legal holiday arrangement has not been published yet, but production stops flowing well before it and takes weeks to return. This is the window to plan against.

Timeline

Spring Festival travel rush beginsWorkers begin leaving for their home provinces weeks before the holiday, so labour-intensive lines are already thin and overtime gets expensive.

21 Jan 2027
in 107 days

Factories wind downMost smaller factories stop quoting normal lead times and finish existing orders. Larger exporters keep skeleton crews running.

23 Jan 2027
in 109 days

Public holidayExpected window, not yet law. The State Council publishes the arrangement in November or December, so these dates can shift by a day or two.

EXPECTED 5 Feb – 13 Feb 2027
in 122 days

Most factories reopenProduction restarts, usually on partial shifts while workers return and raw material supply catches up.

15 Feb 2027
in 132 days

Output back to normalTypical point at which a supplier can hold a normal lead time again. Book critical orders well before this date.

1 Mar 2027
in 146 days

Apart from the public holiday, these dates are a planning range built from how factories normally behave around the holiday — there is no official dataset for factory shutdown. This year's public holiday dates have not been published yet either, so even the EXPECTED row is provisional. Treat this as a scheduling buffer, not a commitment from any supplier.

Practical advice

Place peak-season ordersby mid January

Expect quotations to slowfrom early February

Normal lead times resume1 Mar

Exporters in Guangdong, Zhejiang and Fujian run leanest and return slowest; large state-linked manufacturers often resume closer to the legal end date.