Chinese New Year 2025!  For the Shipping Schedules – The
Disruption, the Distinction and the Yearly reset. A Quick
Guide for Merchants and Forwarders.

Both a disruption and a distinction opportunity. Common sense planning to make up for the difference.

Up next – Jan-29 through Feb-04 2025 for the the public holidays in China. The festivities will go until Feb-16 2025 for the Lunar, Spring Festival or Chinese New Year.

What is happening when and where:  an all-of-   China holiday period from Jan-29 2025.  Year 2025 is the year of the Snake (a sign of the Chinese horoscope). The production shuts down and with it – all the physical shipping of goods all the way through China outbound exports. People are with their families, there are no stand-ins, no skeleton staff, no fallback operations, or any other contingencies the once industrious logistician can pull out or beg through.

Why is the Lunar such a heads-up event for the Freight? As with any dynamic system, Shipping runs into the period building up inefficiencies (so much so now post 2024 rates development). This, with all the backlog volumes, and rollovers of already ‘gate-in’ exports in many ports and empty equipment availability tight.

Now, the closer we get to the Spring Festival, the harder it gets to plan, order  and ship.

What to look out for:

Have credible production schedule from supplier. Regular checks. At the
minimum, with the lead time into the last pre-Lunar shipments. You don’t
want a missed delivery get ticked as production issue. Everybody else
gets to prioritize too, and all else will compete on the same seller’s
market.

Ask for pre-shipment checkpoints: expedition documents – warehouse
receipts/orders, packing list, quality certicates, pro-forma invoices,
product packaging, marks and numbers for the ready batch. Get the
pictures when you can. Ask again if you cannot.

Check cutoffs. Sailings (again). Sailing Schedules’ Updates (yet again).

Have trading, terms, payments and rest paperwork agreed and drafted on time.

Use your tried and true contact for the critical shipments and contingencies. Should be a
solid one to stand their ground when departure slots and empty
containers run out. On the face of it you buy a company service, in reality
you buy from people.

Generally, don’t shop for rates late into the Lunar unless you can be sure.
A venturing forwarder would entice last minute volumes on price, just to
control between carriers, but ultimately it’s the shipper that misses the
sailing.

All said, be sure that exporters and manufacturers build anticipation
stock in the run up. Unless you get to know about it yourself, have a buyer
rep to scout and negotiate locally. Some independent buyers and agents
can even accommodate your inquiry from out-of China supply base. This
can be a one off but it can get them your repeat business if they manage a
timely remedy. Be prepared to commit. The more generic your
merchandise, the easier it lends itself to substitution from new suppliers

Good product sourcing tactics on how to tackle the Spring Festival
campaign given your product specics is offered on the China Trade
Content links like Oberlo , forwarders websites or Marketplace Platforms
like AliExpress .

If yours is a digitally advanced enterprise, and already at the Industry 4.0
stage, you can work out the analytics and marketing muscle for the
insights and inuence onto when and why – who of your end customers
click on what, and then you would be most likely using the Lunar
excitement to craft campaigns and step up serving your market.

“What is you cargo?..” The shipping agent asked nonchalantly.. (as if in a mini-series..)

Did you know that your cargo type matters a lot, for the prioritization
eligibility, especially during tight capacity times and rollovers?

The physical characteristics of the goods you source and ship is also key
to what pricing and service you get. Other things being equal, dry
packaged, lightweight cargo, which is easy to handle and is bearing no
hazards is the ideal target – in fact the darling on the carriers (and their agents) side. Know your advantage as a shipper or be exible if there are specics (constraints).

In summary:

The fair amount of common sense planning will get you over the Lunar
with no rip off charges or empty shelves. It hurts for a product (or brand)
to miss a delivery cycle but on the ip side it’s what brand is about – add
traction to loyalty. For the rest non-brands and generics, i.e. the – Freght
All Kinds (FAK) shipping volumes – we cannot emphasize enough the
Shipping industry, is still very much a shoulder rubbing business and
merchants still need to invest in relations with their service partners from
the Marine industry.

Last, when Lunar campaign settles, it’s usually about time to renegotiate
yearly contract with carriers, so even though the Lunar could seem like a costly, bruising
and intense experience for container shipping, it’s a learning curve period
you can use to educate in rubbing shoulders.

Happy Spring Festivities!

**

Dintro.info, a Magaya partner, is a supply chain systems
consultancy, helping shipping, freight forwarding and logistics companies
with sales and operations, systems and processes.