If you outsource any kind of items from China, you’re possibly familiar with Chinese New Year(CNY), also called Lunar Year. Maybe your supply chain has experienced the Chinese New Year break before. If so, you should know that when CNY comes will bring in manufacturing and delivery disruptions.
If you haven’t bought from China before, you haven’t experienced Chinese New Year. Please allow us to aid maintain your supply chain on the right track while minimizing any type of unfavorable impacts.
What is the Chinese New Year?
Chinese New Year, also called Lunar New Year, is an annual 15-day event in China and also Chinese communities worldwide. It starts between January 21 and February 20 according to Western schedules.
This year, Chinese New Year will begin Tuesday, February 1st, 2022. Normally, Chinese companies and also manufacturing facilities close for regarding three working weeks, enabling employees to go back home to spend the vacation with their families. To get a better idea of exactly how large the migration movement is throughout the Chinese New Year holiday. Below are the pictures that show the migration throughout the lunar year.
Throughout the Spring Festival, most of China’s workers from coastal cities, travel by car train, as well as plane back to their hometowns. The substantial holiday movement returns to the late 1970s when economic reforms caused phenomenal growth in cities in seaside regions of China, specifically in the cities of Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Dongguan, and also Zhuhai.
Rural Chinese, looking for a secure income, transferred to cities hundreds of miles from the house. People from inland cities or small cities also prefer to go to big cities for better job opportunities, such as Beijing Shanghai, and Hangzhou. Like in the western country, holidays are considered family time. As the most important traditional festival, Chinese New Year is a festival that Chinese people attach great importance to. Most Chinese people have no time to reunite with their families in their busy work for the whole year. The Spring Festival is the only time to visit friends and relatives in a busy year.
Chinese New Year Closure timeline 2022
Chinese New Year formally begins on February 1, 2022, manufacturers will certainly start slowing down or stopping production 7-10days earlier. We advise you to ask your suppliers when their workplaces and also manufacturing facilities will be closed throughout the holiday. Below is a standard schedule for the Chinese New Year shutdown.
- Mid Of January: Suppliers rush the products that require to deliver before CNY. Some of them begin to stop production.
- Mid to End Of January: Production line employees start to flow out of the factories. Some workplace staff members are still working.
- January 31th: Factories shut, all staff members have left.
- February 1st: 2022 Chinese New Year.
- February 8th: Some factories opened up, part of the production line began working. Most office employees return to work and start taking orders.
- Mid Of February: Production workers begin arriving back at the factories.
- February 21th: The majority of workers have returned.
- End Of February: Factory manufacturing is practically back to normal.
How Importer to Prepare for Chinese New Year
It’s important to be mindful that the effects of the Chinese New Year. It does without claiming that you need to ensure you have adequate supply to see you through the holiday period, as the ports close for days, the bulk of manufacturers will shut over 15days. It took a month for many factories to fully return to normal production.
Prepare previously
Since you already know the Chinese New Year long holiday is coming, you should be better prepared for the backup orders earlier. Do not miss out on the date for your last order. A steady supply of products is crucial to keeping your company running.
Throughout this duration of the year, the majority of Chinese logistics are faced with a staff shortage as laborers return home, consequently shipping expenses become significantly much more costly than normal time. Container and pickup drivers are usually most in short supply before the Spring Festiva in the initial two weeks of the New Year. So try to avoid container shipping at this time if possible.
Examined the past sales and check the inventory. Find out your stock requirements beforehand. Please additionally take the shipping time right into consideration, specifically presently that freight delays are so serious and blockage at the docks has not been effectively relieved.
Pay attention to the quality
As pre-festival production is increased to load the ‘New Year Gap’, and pressure on production raised, quality will certainly be impacted more or less. Quality issues can after that continue after the holiday as high staff turnover indicates that new employees have to be discovered as well as trained to change who did not return. This additionally may cause production delays. So we recommend increasing tracking and communication in the months leading up to, and after, the holiday to minimize any kind of possible problems.
Communicate closely with vendors
As a result of the long shutdown, vendors and also staff members might not return to work intime. So before the Chinese New Year’s closure, talk with them regarding the possible troubles and also hold-ups might have. As well as identify exactly how to handle them as well as successfully browsed the long vacation.
And also throughout the Chinese New Year, the bank will close as well, so the overseas wire transfer can not proceed. So please make sure the due repayment is settled before the holiday so as not to postpone the manufacturing of products. And the telex released bill of lading that will be in time at the port throughout the holiday needs to additionally be arranged in advance.
After the Chinese New Year plan
As we discussed above, manufacturing facility employees will return to work late, also part of them will leave their old jobs. So there is a workforce shortage in the first month after the long holiday for most factories. It may take weeks or more than one month for the factory to speed up and catch the normal production schedule. So planning for after CNY is also essential.
You can forecast the sales situation and inventory status, also attempt to increase some inventory in the backup orders to prevent the prospective shortage of the products because of the hold-up of the factory after the Spring Festival.
(The first working day of the New Year, the factory hold reopens ceremony to pray for best luck in the new year.)
In conclusion, being planned for the Chinese New Year period from a business strategy will certainly go a long way to avoid significant issues. This moment of the year in China may not be convenient, but managing the issues and chances that the Chinese New Year brings properly can aid to smooth out this special duration.
As a professional procurement company, Style Sourcing always reminds our customers in advance to prepare for the purchase plan before the New Year and the deployment of the backup order. Keeping in touch closely with customers and factories to minimize the impact of production disruptions in the New Year.
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