The Source Code

Consequences leading up to Chinese New Year

  

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As we are now 12 days away from the official start date to the year of the dragon you’ve probably already begun to notice your suppliers exhibiting some irregular activities. Maybe communication has become a little more sporadic, your technical questions are going unanswered and those orders you wanted rush delivery for, are now delayed 3 weeks shipping after the holiday. Or then again maybe nothing’s changed, as some would say all these traits are par for the course in good times from Chinese suppliers. Kidding of course.

All jokes aside this is the time of year when all the regular complications from doing business in China become magnified. This is to be expected as all suppliers tend to be a little pre-occupied with their upcoming holiday. Even though a manufacturer may not be scheduled to shutdown until a couple of days before the actual holiday, you can bet most of the workers have checked out, figuratively speaking. And no matter your order importance or technical problem, I can guarantee it’s not as significant to them as their upcoming time off with family, whom they haven’t seen since last Chinese New Year (CNY).

So if you want to stay out of trouble leading up to CNY there are few import aspects to watch from your supplier and logistic providers.

1. Communication may become more sporadic or incomplete. Try to no leave any pressing issues (that require immediate solving) within a one week to window of a manufacturer’s shutdown period.
2. Factories will be rushing to get orders complete before the holiday, make sure your quality inspection team or process is on high alert.
3. If your order was placed at the beginning of Dec. (with regular production 40/50 days) expect that it will ship after the holiday break.
4. If your product is not made-to-order and you buy from inventory. Be weary of receiving unacceptable quality products as factories are reluctant to hold product back or reproduce items because they want to clear inventory and warehouse space.
5. Check your rates with your logistics company. Some will charge a premium during this time period due to increased demand.
6. Ensure any important shipments are booked well in advance with your logistics company. No sense in pushing the factory to complete an order before the holiday if you can’t clear it from their warehouse.

That’s it for today. Stay tuned for the next weeks post.

(For more than 10 years, GCP Industrial Products has successfully offered its customers a unique sourcing process that allows them to save money, streamline their supply chain and grow with new products. Our plans are to continue to grow based upon mutually beneficial relationships and the quality of our products and services to our ever growing customer base. To contact us please click here or phone 1-888-893-5427. Thank you.)