Are You Planning On Importing In January 2026?
We know Christmas isn’t over yet but Chinese New Year is fast approaching with little time to think about imports in the time after the UK festive period. It’s important to start planning now for your first import of 2026 before you get caught out with delays.
Factories are expected to be closed from around 13th to the 23rd February (this will vary from factory to factory). In order to avoid the Chinese factory closure, you’ll need to have your goods ready around the 5th of February to ensure your goods catch the vessel before factories start closing for the holidays.
It is recommended that your goods arrive at the local port by the 9th February to ensure your goods can set sail the week of the 16th. If your supplier can’t get your goods to the port in time the next sailing will be around the week of the 23rd, to sail the following week (2nd March).
Space for containers gets very tight on vessels around this time, so even though you’ll have a few more days to play with if shipping a full container load (FCL), this is very much space-dependent. It’s important to get space secured early to avoid disappointment.
What is Chinese New Year?
If you’re importing from China, it’s really helpful to keep the major Chinese holidays in mind—especially when you’re planning production or delivery timelines. Pop them into your calendar, and you’ll avoid any last-minute surprises.
The biggest holiday of all is Chinese New Year (CNY). Factories close, workers head home, and things can slow down for a few weeks. To make things easier on you, we’ve put together a handy guide to Chinese New Year for importers so you know what’s happening and how to prepare.
Chinese New Year—also known as the Spring Festival—is a much-loved tradition with over 4,000 years of history. Today, it’s mainly about family time, rest, and welcoming good luck for the year ahead.
Some of the most common traditions include:
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Giving red envelopes filled with good wishes
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Enjoying lucky foods, like fish
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Setting off firecrackers to chase away bad luck
It’s a joyful celebration—and it also kicks off the world’s largest annual human migration, known as Chunyun. More than a billion people travel across China to reunite with loved ones!
If you’d like to learn more about this amazing festival, you might enjoy reading these fun facts about Chinese New Year.
How Does Chinese New Year Affect Imports?
During Chinese New Year, most manufacturers in China temporarily shut down—and the effects reach much further than the holiday itself. Here’s what typically happens:
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No new orders are accepted.
Suppliers pause incoming orders as they prepare for the holiday period. -
Production and sample development stop 1–2 weeks before the holiday.
This isn’t always in your supplier’s control. Many of their own material and component providers close early, which slows down the entire supply chain. -
Production remains paused for at least two weeks after Chinese New Year.
Even though the official holiday lasts just five working days plus a weekend, most workers travel long distances to return to their hometowns. Many stay an extra week or two before coming back—if they return at all.
It’s also common for up to a third of factory workers not to return after the break, leaving factories short-staffed. Hiring and training new workers takes time, which adds to the post-holiday production delays.
Make sure you take into consideration reduction in quality straight after Chinese New Year, a third of the factory’s workforce won’t return to work straight away. This increases delays and reduces the quality of production.
Even if the whole workforce return, the increased demand after CNY mean there will be a huge backlog of orders, stretching the suppliers capacity to it’s limit.
What can you do?
– Plan ahead, make sure you contact your supplier now to understand their time frames for getting orders ready before CNY.
– If you have a strict deadline that you can’t miss it might be worth considering paying the extra to ship your goods by Air freight, flights before CNY are often overbooked and more expensive so it may be worth getting the goods here early to avoid disappointment.
– Check your suppliers quality, consider using a third-party service to manually look over your shipments at this time.
Other dates to be aware of in 2026:
| Holiday | 2026 Date | Days on Holiday | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Year’s Day | Jan. 1 | Jan. 1 – 3 | ||
| Chinese New Year | Feb. 17 | Feb. 15 – 23 | ||
| Qingming Festival | Apr. 5 | Apr. 4 – 6 | ||
| May Day | May 1 | May 1 – 5 | ||
| Dragon Boat Festival | Jun. 19 | Jun. 19 – 21 | ||
| Mid-Autumn Day | Sep. 25 | Sep. 25 – 27 | ||
| National Day | Oct. 1 | Oct. 1 – 7 |
Source: travelchinaguide.com
How can Shippo help?
If you’d like to find out more on how to plan ahead, please contact us. We’d be happy to help with schedules and deadlines for when you should be ordering your stock. Then we’ll handle all the stress of booking the shipment and getting it delivered to you on time!