Chinese New Year Shipping Delays 2027: The Full Timeline
Quick answer: Chinese New Year 2027 falls on 6 February. Factories across China close for roughly two to four weeks around it, and shipping slows from mid-January to early March. Order by early December for sea freight and mid-January for air, or expect lead times three to six weeks longer than usual.
Key takeaways
The shutdown is longer than the public holiday. The statutory break is about a week; the practical factory closure is two to four weeks, plus a slow ramp back to full output.
The squeeze starts before the holiday, not during it. Every buyer rushes the same production slots and the same container space in December and January, so prices rise and deadlines tighten early.
Work backwards from 6 February 2027. Sea freight needs to be booked by early December; air freight holds up until roughly mid-January; express couriers stop collecting in China a day or two before the holiday.
Platforms behave differently. AliExpress sellers shipping from stock recover faster than Alibaba.com suppliers running made-to-order production.
Get the reopening date in writing. "After the holiday" is not a date. Ask each supplier for their exact close and restart days, and assume the first week back is not full capacity.
When is Chinese New Year 2027 and how long do factories actually close?
Chinese New Year 2027 falls on 6 February 2027, opening the Year of the Goat. The Spring Festival runs for fifteen days and ends with the Lantern Festival on 20 February 2027. China's State Council confirms the exact statutory holiday dates each autumn — for 2027 the public holiday is expected to run from around 6 to 14 February, so treat any date you see before that announcement as a planning estimate rather than a fact.
The statutory holiday is the smallest part of the problem. Chinese manufacturing runs heavily on migrant labour, and workers travel home for the only extended break in their year. Many leave several days before the official start and return several days after it. In practice:
Most factories stop taking new production roughly one to two weeks before the holiday.
Physical closure typically lasts two to four weeks.
Full output usually returns two to four weeks after reopening, because not every worker comes back and new hires need training.
Add those together and the realistic disruption window for CNY 2027 stretches from roughly mid-January to early March — about six weeks in which your supply chain is either slower, more expensive, or both.
Chinese New Year 2027 planning calendar
Period | What happens in China | What you should be doing |
|---|---|---|
Sep – Oct 2026 | Normal production; Q4 peak season builds | Forecast your January–March sell-through and identify which SKUs you cannot run out of |
Nov 2026 | Peak season freight; factories quoting Q1 slots | Confirm each supplier's close and reopen dates in writing; book production slots |
Early Dec 2026 | Pre-CNY production rush begins | Sea freight cutoff. Place and pay for buffer stock orders going by ocean |
Jan 2027 | Freight rates rise; container space tightens; ports congest | Air freight cutoff around mid-January. Raise advertised delivery times in your store |
Late Jan – 5 Feb 2027 | Factories wind down; couriers stop collecting | Stop promising fast delivery; pause ads on out-of-stock or slow SKUs |
6 – 14 Feb 2027 | Statutory holiday; minimal logistics activity | Sell from stock only; keep customer messaging honest |
15 – 28 Feb 2027 | Staggered reopening; large backlog clearing | Chase confirmations, expect partial capacity, do not trust first quoted dates |
Mar 2027 | Output normalises; rates fall back | Resume normal ordering; review what ran out and by how much |
Why does shipping slow down before the holiday, not just during it?
The delay you feel in February was created in December. Three things stack up in the weeks before Chinese New Year, and all of them work against you at the same time.
Everyone orders at once. Every importer, dropshipper and retailer who knows about the shutdown tries to get their goods out before it. Factories that normally quote a two-week production lead time start quoting four or five, and they prioritise their largest and oldest customers. A small dropshipping order placed in early January is at the back of that queue.
Freight capacity sells out. The same rush hits ocean carriers and airlines. Container space on China–Europe and China–US lanes books out weeks in advance, and carriers routinely apply rate increases into the pre-holiday peak. Space you could book on three days' notice in October may need three weeks' notice in January.
The backlog does not clear instantly. When ports and sorting centres reopen, they are working through everything that piled up during the closure while also handling new volume. This is the stage where tracking numbers sit unchanged for days — the parcel exists, but it is queued. If that is where you are, our guide to an AliExpress package stuck in transit covers what is worth chasing and what is just waiting.
If this pattern sounds familiar, it is the same one that plays out on a smaller scale every October — see Golden Week China shipping delays. Chinese New Year is that pattern at roughly three times the duration.
What are the order cutoff dates for Chinese New Year 2027?
There is no single cutoff — it depends on how your goods move. Work backwards from 6 February 2027, allowing for production time before transit even starts.
Shipping method | Typical transit | Plan to order by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Sea freight (FCL/LCL) | 30–45 days port to port | Early December 2026 | Add 2–4 weeks production before booking. Last container cutoffs land around mid-January |
Rail (China–Europe) | 18–25 days | Mid-December 2026 | Fewer departures than sea; slots fill early |
Air freight | 5–10 days | Mid-January 2027 | Rates climb steeply into the holiday; the cheapest option is the first to sell out |
Express courier (DHL/FedEx/UPS) | 3–7 days | Late January 2027 | Networks keep running, but collections in China stop a day or two before the holiday |
AliExpress Standard / Cainiao | 15–30 days | Mid-January 2027 | Depends on whether the seller ships from stock or reorders — ask before you rely on it |
Two caveats worth taking seriously. First, these are planning targets, not guarantees: a supplier who closes early or a port that congests can move any of them by a week. Second, the cutoff that matters is your supplier's, not the carrier's. A factory that stops production on 25 January has effectively closed for you on 25 January, whatever the airline schedule says.
How do AliExpress, Alibaba.com, 1688 and Taobao differ during the shutdown?
The platform you buy on changes how badly the holiday hits you, mostly because of one variable: whether the goods already exist. Sellers shipping from finished stock only need logistics to restart. Suppliers running made-to-order production need their whole workforce back.
Platform | Typical CNY impact | Main risk | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
AliExpress | Moderate — most sellers ship from existing stock | Warehouse and courier backlog, not production | Order by mid-January; check each seller's holiday notice on their store page |
Alibaba.com | High — bulk orders are usually manufactured to order | Production slots lost entirely if you book late | Confirm slots and deposits in November; get close/reopen dates in writing |
1688 | High — domestic wholesale, closes with the factories | Your agent may also be closed, adding a second gap | Confirm your agent's holiday schedule separately from the supplier's |
Taobao | Moderate to high — mixed stock and made-to-order | Sellers reopening on unpredictable dates | Treat quoted dispatch dates as optimistic; keep a backup listing |
Domestic/local supplier | None | Higher unit cost | Worth holding for one or two critical SKUs as insurance |
Note that 1688 and Taobao both add an agent layer for most buyers outside China, and that agent is a business with its own holiday. Plenty of sellers who carefully checked their factory's dates were still caught out because their sourcing agent closed for a fortnight. If you are new to buying there, how to buy from 1688 outside China explains where the agent sits in the chain.
How to plan your Chinese New Year buffer stock
The goal is not to guess perfectly. It is to make sure the SKUs that earn most of your money do not go dark for six weeks.
Forecast January to March, then add a margin for error. Take your recent weekly sell-through per SKU, multiply by the number of weeks you will be exposed, and add 20–30% on your top sellers. Buffer your winners, not your long tail.
Split the order. Ship part by sea in December for cost, and hold a smaller air shipment for January in case demand runs ahead of your forecast. Paying more for a fraction of the volume beats paying air freight on all of it.
Get dates in writing. Ask every supplier and agent for their last production day, last dispatch day, and first working day back. Save the message. "After the holiday" is not a date.
Pay deposits early. Production slots are allocated to confirmed orders. An unpaid quote in January is not a slot.
Adjust your storefront before you need to. Extend advertised delivery windows in mid-January rather than apologising in February, and pause ads on anything you cannot restock.
Line up one backup per critical SKU. A second supplier — or a local one at a worse price — is cheap insurance on the product that pays your bills.
That buffer order is usually the single largest sourcing invoice of your year — three months of stock bought in one go, at the exact moment freight is most expensive. It is also the order where a percentage back is worth the most: cashback on AliExpress sourcing orders returns up to 11% of what you spend, which is a meaningful offset against a peak-season freight bill rather than a rounding error on a single unit. Whatever tool you use, apply it to the big pre-holiday order rather than the small ones.
What should you tell your customers?
Be specific and be early. A store banner from mid-January reading "Orders placed after 20 January may arrive after 10 March due to the Chinese New Year holiday" costs you a few conversions. Silence followed by a wave of "where is my order" tickets in February costs you refunds, disputes and reviews. Three things worth doing:
Update advertised delivery windows in your product pages, not only in a banner people scroll past.
Send a short email to anyone with an open order before the holiday starts, not after they chase you.
Name the reason. "Chinese New Year factory closures" is a real, verifiable explanation that most buyers accept — a vague "shipping delays" is not.
Common Chinese New Year planning mistakes
Planning from the holiday date instead of the production cutoff. Your deadline is when the factory stops, which is usually one to two weeks earlier.
Assuming reopening means full capacity. The first week back typically runs on partial staff and a large backlog.
Over-buffering the long tail. Cash tied up in slow SKUs is cash you cannot spend on the winners in March.
Forgetting the agent, the freight forwarder and the 3PL. Every party in the chain has its own holiday schedule.
Frequently asked questions
When is Chinese New Year 2027?
Chinese New Year 2027 falls on 6 February 2027, beginning the Year of the Goat. The fifteen-day Spring Festival ends with the Lantern Festival on 20 February 2027. China's State Council confirms the exact statutory holiday dates in the preceding autumn.
How long do Chinese New Year shipping delays last?
Expect roughly six weeks of disruption in total: about one to two weeks of pre-holiday slowdown, two to four weeks of closure, and two to four weeks of reduced output afterwards. For CNY 2027 that means mid-January to early March.
When should I order to avoid Chinese New Year delays in 2027?
Order sea freight by early December 2026, rail by mid-December, air freight by mid-January 2027, and express courier by late January. Add two to four weeks for production before transit if your goods are made to order.
Do AliExpress sellers ship during Chinese New Year?
Some do, but most pause. Sellers shipping from existing stock may dispatch during the holiday, though courier collection and sorting in China largely stops for the statutory week. Check the seller's holiday notice on their store page before ordering in late January.
Will shipping cost more before Chinese New Year?
Usually yes. Demand for container and air cargo space peaks in the weeks before the holiday, and carriers commonly apply rate increases into that peak. Booking earlier is generally cheaper than booking closer to the cutoff.
What if my order is already delayed by the holiday?
Wait out the statutory week before escalating — tracking that has not updated for a few days in early February is normal. If it is still unchanged two weeks after the holiday ends, open a dispute within your buyer protection window rather than after it.
Images: Photo by taro ohtani on Unsplash · Photo by David Vives on Unsplash
Refundy provides cashback on AliExpress, Alibaba.com, 1688, and Taobao. Cashback on 1688 requires manual activation through customer support. Cashback excludes shipping, fees, taxes, and split payments — see the cashback terms for details.