Global Supply Network

Chinese New Year 2027, quick answers

When exactly is Chinese New Year 2027?
Saturday 6 February 2027. The official public holiday runs 5 to 12 February. It is the Year of the Fire Goat.
How long do Chinese factories actually close?
The official holiday is about a week; the practical disruption runs four to six. Output falls through late January as workers travel home, stops for the holiday, and returns gradually through the second half of February.
When is the last date I can order for delivery before the holiday?
It depends on the part, but as a working rule: anything needed in Australia by the end of February 2027 should be ordered by early January, with production starting mid-November 2026. New tooling or a first article approval needs considerably longer.
Is it worth ordering during the shutdown period?
Orders can be placed at any time, but production resuming after the holiday carries higher quality risk while factories return to full staffing. If a part is critical, build safety stock before the shutdown rather than queue behind it.
Does Chinese New Year affect shipping as well as production?
Yes, in both directions. A rush of cargo before the holiday tightens space and lifts rates, then a lull, then a second squeeze as post-holiday production catches up. Booking against a named sailing matters more here than at any other time of year.

/ Guides & Insights

Chinese New Year 2027: Your Ordering Calendar

By Chris Perfetti10 min

Chinese New Year 2027 falls on Saturday 6 February. That is eleven days earlier than the 2026 holiday, and those eleven days are the reason this needs to be on your desk in September rather than November.

The date moves every year, and every year a proportion of Australian importers treat it as a week off in February. It is not. For a manufacturer it is a four to six week disruption, and the earlier it falls, the more of your fourth quarter it eats.

What actually happens, and for how long

The official public holiday runs from 5 to 12 February 2027. The disruption around it is considerably longer.

  • • Late January: output begins falling as workers leave early to travel. By the eve of the holiday a factory may be running at a third of its normal rate.
  • • 5 to 12 February: closed.
  • • 13 February into early March: the restart. Factories reopen at partial capacity while they wait to see which staff return, and most do not reach normal output until late February at the earliest.

The restart is the part that catches people. A factory that reopens on the 15th is not producing on the 15th, and parts made during ramp-up carry a higher quality risk than parts made either side of it, new staff, rushed setups, pressure to clear a backlog.

Working backwards from when you need the parts

The only useful way to plan this is from the delivery date, not the order date.

  • • Parts in Australia by the end of February 2027: the order needs to be placed in early January at the latest, with production starting mid-November 2026. Realistically, the specification needs to be settled now.
  • • Parts in Australia by mid-March 2027: order by late January, production from late November.
  • • Parts in Australia by the end of March 2027: you are relying on production either starting in December or resuming after the holiday. The second option carries the ramp-up quality risk described above.

Note what those dates assume: drawing final, material agreed, finish specified, first article approved. Every one of those still open in December pushes the whole sequence past the holiday.

September is already tight

Chinese New Year is not the only thing compressing the calendar. Ocean space out of China into Australia and New Zealand is extremely tight for the whole of September, multiple blank sailings across the last three weeks and one major service suspended for a month. Rates on the Shanghai to Australia lane sit around US$2,432 per TEU, and congestion at the major Chinese ports means headline capacity figures read better than the practical ones.

Behind that sits Mid-Autumn Festival from 25 to 27 September and Golden Week from 1 to 7 October, another national shutdown, shorter than the new year but enough to move a sailing. Cargo that misses a September booking does not simply move to October; it joins the queue behind everything else that missed.

Sea, air, and what changing your mind costs

Every importer eventually faces the same decision: the parts are late, the line is waiting, and air freight is on the table.

It is worth understanding the size of that decision before you are in it. Moving a couple of crates of engineering material by air rather than by sea is a five figure line item, and it buys back weeks rather than months. We have booked it, and there are situations where it is unquestionably the right call: a production line standing idle costs more per week than the freight does. But it is a decision made under pressure at a price set by someone else, and the sequence that leads to it usually starts with a specification still being argued about in November. Planning around the holiday is not about being organised for its own sake. It is about not being the buyer who has to make that call in January.

For the full line-by-line breakdown of what freight adds to an ex-works price, see our guide to the true landed cost of importing machined parts into Australia.

The steps people forget to count

When an importer maps a schedule, they usually count production and shipping. The steps that actually break the calendar are the ones in between.

  • • Tooling. A mould or fixture is quoted, made and proved before a single production part exists. That is its own lead time, sitting in front of everything else.
  • • First articles. Samples have to be made, shipped, inspected here and approved. If the first article fails, the loop repeats, and a rejected sample in December means production starts after the holiday, not before it.
  • • Revisions. A drawing that moves from Rev A to Rev B after tooling is cut is a remake, not an amendment. We have seen one revision consume the entire buffer an importer thought they had.
  • • Finish specification. The quiet one. An anodised or bead blasted component needs the anodising type, texture and colour agreed in writing before production. "Same as last time" is not a specification, and a finish argument in January lands after the factory has closed.
  • • Packaging. Rigid boxes and foam inserts are separately made items with their own lead time, routinely left until the parts are ready to ship.

What to lock down on the purchase order

Before the end of this year, every open order into China should carry:

  • • The supplier's stated last production day and confirmed restart date, in writing.
  • • A named cargo-ready date, not a lead time in weeks.
  • • The booking made against a specific sailing rather than left to the freight forwarder to find.
  • • Finish, material grade and packaging specified on the order itself.
  • • An agreed position on what happens if the first article is rejected.

A note on where the parts are made

One piece of context for anyone reviewing their sourcing this quarter. On 3 September the Productivity Commission handed down an interim report into safeguards on imported fabricated structural steel, finding the conditions for a safeguard had not been met. Submissions close on 30 September; the final report reaches government in November. Nothing changes today, but it is a reminder that the offshore-versus-local decision is not permanent. The sensible position for most Australian manufacturers is a hybrid one, offshore where volume and tooling justify it, local where speed, revision cycles and traceability matter more.

Planning a Q1 program? See how we run overseas manufacturing and CNC machining sourcing end to end, from specification to landed delivery.

Frequently asked questions

When exactly is Chinese New Year 2027?

Saturday 6 February 2027. The official public holiday runs 5 to 12 February. It is the Year of the Fire Goat.

How long do Chinese factories actually close?

The official holiday is about a week; the practical disruption runs four to six. Output falls through late January as workers travel home, stops for the holiday, and returns gradually through the second half of February.

When is the last date I can order for delivery before the holiday?

It depends on the part, but as a working rule: anything needed in Australia by the end of February 2027 should be ordered by early January, with production starting mid-November 2026. New tooling or a first article approval needs considerably longer.

Is it worth ordering during the shutdown period?

Orders can be placed at any time, but production resuming after the holiday carries higher quality risk while factories return to full staffing. If a part is critical, build safety stock before the shutdown rather than queue behind it.

Does Chinese New Year affect shipping as well as production?

Yes, in both directions. A rush of cargo before the holiday tightens space and lifts rates, then a lull, then a second squeeze as post-holiday production catches up. Booking against a named sailing matters more here than at any other time of year.

/ Keep reading

All articles →

★ NEXT STEP

Have a sourcing or manufacturing brief?

Send us a drawing, a target cost and a deadline. We come back rapidly with a vetted route, offshore, onshore, or both.

Brief our team →