What to Expect During Chinese New Year
Posted by Craig Mottershead on Wed, Jan 18, 2012 @ 10:04 AM
Since I’ve already started receiving replies like this from our approved suppliers
“Goods cannot be made or shipped before the holidays, because many transport companies are on holiday. After the holidays (2012-01-30) we will deal with the matter as soon as possible.”
I thought this would be an opportune time to layout some expectations of what you can anticipate from your suppliers and logistics providers over their New Year holiday. Unlike North America, where over major holidays most companies will employ a skeleton staff to maintain some level of operations, China will basically be closed for business.
Meaning no return emails, no order production updates, no logistics updates or quality control reports. Factories and major production zones will literally become ghost towns. A safe bet is to plan for this interruption to last about 2 weeks, even though the official holiday is scheduled to last 5 days.
This year the Spring Festival falls on a Monday (Jan. 23) setting up a likely situation where factories will start shutting down as early as Jan. 18th to accommodate for workers travel. Being the largest human migration in the world it will take some workers upwards of 3 days to make it back to their rural home towns.
Conversely, if you’ve made an appointment to meet with your supplier over the next couple of weeks I hope you’ve confirmed, reconfirmed and then reconfirmed again. It’s not uncommon for suppliers to welcome their customers throughout the year, so many will say yes to your visit without giving it a second thought. Especially if it’s made months in advance your supplier might not initially realize there’s a conflict. Factor in the holiday actually changes year-to-year because it aligns in accordance with the lunar calendar not Gregorian. The likelihood of a mix up ensuing is far greater during this period than any other time of year, so unless you absolutely HAVE to meet, I’d just suggest you avoid it altogether.
That’s it for today. Stay tuned for the next weeks post.
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