Table of Contents
Table of Contents
It's January 25. Your reorder for the spring bestseller is 'almost done' at the factory, and your Valentine's Day ads are already scheduled. Then the supplier sends a polite WeChat message saying the line stops on the 28th and they'll see you in late February.
Most people who sell online with goods from China have had some version of that message. The holiday itself is about a week, but the slowdown around it eats close to two months, and in 2027 it comes early. Chinese New Year falls on Saturday, February 6, 2027, which is 11 days earlier than in 2026. Valentine's Day is the Sunday after, February 14.
A lot of the guides out there are written for importers moving full containers. Those are useful, though they mostly skip the thing online sellers worry about, which is what happens to the orders that keep coming in while China is on holiday. This guide goes through both: when to order and book freight, and how to keep parcels going out to customers through the break.
When Is Chinese New Year 2027, and How Long Does Shipping Slow Down?
The fixed dates come from the lunar calendar, so they won't move:
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Date
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What happens
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Friday, Feb 5, 2027
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Chinese New Year's Eve (chuxi)
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Saturday, Feb 6, 2027
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Chinese New Year's Day, Year of the Goat
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Sunday, Feb 14, 2027
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Valentine's Day, and a make-up working day in China right after the official break
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Saturday, Feb 20, 2027
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Lantern Festival, the traditional end of the season
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The Official Holiday vs the Real 6 to 8 Week Window
On paper the Spring Festival break is short. Under the national holiday rules in force since 2025 it's four days off, and weekend swaps stretch it further. China's State Council published the official 2027 schedule on November 5, 2026. The break runs nine days, from Friday, February 5 (New Year's Eve) to Saturday, February 13. Sunday, January 31 and Sunday, February 14 are make-up working days, so offices that follow the national schedule will be open on Valentine's Day.
The official dates matter less than the disruption around them, which runs much longer:
- From mid-January, factories slow down and workers with long trips home start leaving.
- By late January, freight space is tight, domestic couriers are swamped, and plenty of suppliers stop taking new orders.
- From around February 5 until mid-February, most factories pause, and so does a good chunk of trucking and warehousing. Some keep a skeleton crew.
- After the Lantern Festival on February 20, production picks up again, slowly. Full speed often takes until early or mid-March.
So 'Chinese New Year shipping delays' really means six to eight weeks where everything moves slower. SEKO Logistics and several other forwarders describe 2027 the same way in their planning guides.
Why 2027 Feels Tighter Than 2026
The early date is the obvious problem. February 6 means the reorder you'd normally place 'after the holidays' in January is now your last order before Chinese New Year.
Valentine's Day makes it worse, because it sits inside the shutdown. If you sell jewelry, beauty products, home decor or novelty gifts, that stock has to be in place before China goes quiet. And if your Christmas season goes well, you'll want to restock in December, which is exactly when factories are juggling everybody's pre-holiday rush.
Our Chinese New Year 2026 shutdown guide from last year follows the same logic. The calendar just moved forward by almost two weeks.
Two Clocks: Your Factory Clock and Your Parcel Clock
If you run an online store, you have two separate deadlines running at the same time, and most CNY articles only talk about one of them.
The factory clock covers getting inventory made and moved: production orders, quality checks, freight booking, and getting the goods to wherever you ship from. That could be a warehouse in China, a 3PL in your own country, or Amazon FBA.
The parcel clock covers single orders going to single customers. Somebody clicks 'buy' on February 3. Someone has to pick that order, a carrier has to take it, and at some point it lands on their doorstep.
Importers moving containers mostly care about the factory clock. Online sellers have to run both, and customers only ever see the parcel clock. A late container hurts your cash flow for a few weeks. A Valentine's gift that shows up on February 20 usually turns into a one-star review.
We'll start with the factory clock.
Your CNY 2027 Shipping Calendar, Worked Backward from February 6
Work backward from the date your goods need to be ready, instead of forward from whenever you get around to ordering. The calendar below uses the 2027 ranges forwarders have published so far. Use it to plan, then confirm the real dates with your supplier and carrier.
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Step
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Rough target date
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Why
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Final production orders (made-to-order goods)
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Late November to early December 2026
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Factories need roughly 8 to 10 weeks before the holiday to finish runs
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Pre-shipment inspection
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Early January 2027
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Leaves time to fix problems before the line stops
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Ocean freight booking
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4 to 5 weeks before departure, so by early to mid-December
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Space sells out on pre-holiday sailings
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Last pre-holiday ocean loading
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Mid-January 2027
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Late cargo risks getting rolled to a post-holiday sailing
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Air freight booking
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Early to mid-January 2027
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Air rates and space get tight in the last two weeks
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Stock into a China fulfillment warehouse
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Around mid-January 2027
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Domestic couriers slow down sharply in late January
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Last parcels out of China before the break
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Late January to early February 2027
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Depends on each carrier's holiday notice
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Factories restart
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After Feb 20, 2027 (Lantern Festival)
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Output ramps up gradually into March
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The dates are ranges on purpose. Some 2027 guides online give ocean cutoffs a full month apart, and a couple of them contradict themselves. The safer move is to ask your supplier for three dates in writing: their last production day, the last day they'll accept a shipment booking, and their first day back.
Ocean Freight (FCL and LCL)
Ocean is usually the lowest-cost way per kilo to move volume. It's also slow, and the pre-holiday crunch hits it hardest. Carriers often cancel some sailings around the holiday (the industry calls these blank sailings), which squeezes space even more. Miss the last pre-holiday departure and your container can easily sit until late February.
With LCL (less than container load), give yourself a few extra days for consolidation, because LCL warehouses fill up fast in January.
Air Freight and Express
Air fills the gaps. It suits light, fast-selling items with decent margins, and Valentine's stock that has to arrive by early February is the classic case. You can still get air space during the holiday, but rates climb in the run-up and pickups inside China get patchy.
Air and express are priced on chargeable weight, meaning whichever is higher of the actual weight and the volume weight. Express couriers usually divide length × width × height in cm by 5,000, and standard air cargo divides by 6,000. A bulky, light product can end up costing a lot more than you'd guess.
Rail to Europe
For European customers, China to Europe rail sits between ocean and air on cost and on speed. The holiday affects it too, since cargo still has to get trucked to the railhead, so book around mid-December if you plan to use it.
Ecommerce Parcels from a China Fulfillment Warehouse
Online sellers have one real advantage here, as long as they plan for it. If your stock already sits in a China fulfillment warehouse, you aren't waiting on a factory. Each order gets picked, packed and shipped as a parcel straight to the customer.
Two dates matter for this setup. The first is the warehouse's last receiving date, after which new inbound stock won't get checked in until the holiday is over. The second is the last dispatch date, the final day parcels go to carriers before the break.
Your provider will put both in its holiday notice, usually in December or early January. Ask for it early and put the dates in your calendar.
Then add transit time. As a reference, cross-border parcels from China often take around 7 to 12 business days to the US. That's an estimate and not a promise, since route, product type, customs and season all shift it. If you want a parcel on a US doorstep by Valentine's Day, it really needs to leave China in late January, and earlier is safer.
How to Keep Online Orders Shipping Through the Break
With inventory sorted, the next question is the customers who keep ordering while China is closed. A bit of setup here saves you a pile of support emails later.
Get Stock into the Warehouse Before the Last Receiving Date
Look at your sales over the last couple of months and estimate how much you'll sell from mid-January to mid-March. That's your CNY cover. Many guides suggest something like 6 to 8 weeks of extra stock for fast movers. If you're unsure, lean a little higher on bestsellers and a little lower on the long tail. Running out of a bestseller in February hurts, because a restock takes weeks. Our post on what a stockout really costs goes into this in more detail.
Don't aim for the last receiving day itself, either. Domestic couriers in China are buried in late January, so goods your supplier sends 'on time' can still show up late.
What Happens to Orders Placed During the Holiday
Orders keep coming in through your store and sync to the warehouse as usual. If the warehouse has paused, they sit in a queue. When the staff return they work through it, often oldest first, while new orders keep piling on.
The first week or so after the restart is slower than normal because of that. A customer who ordered on February 8 might see the parcel leave China somewhere in the middle or end of February, and normal transit time comes on top of that.
It helps to ask your warehouse three things before the break. When does picking and packing restart (which can be later than the office reopening)? Does anyone work through the holiday for urgent orders, and what does that cost? And can your top SKUs get packed first when the backlog clears?
Handling Times, Delivery Promises and Store Notices
Most customers are fine with a longer wait if you tell them before they pay. Surprises are what make them angry. So before the break, update the handling or processing time in your store and on any marketplace you sell on, for the days the warehouse is paused. Adjust the delivery estimates on product pages and at checkout too, and promise a little less than you think you'll deliver.
A short banner helps, something like: 'Orders placed Feb 1 to 15 ship from Feb 17. Thanks for your patience!' Keep it specific. It's also worth writing a ready-made reply to 'where's my order?' before the holiday starts, because you'll get those messages.
Some sellers pause ads on their slowest products over the break, and others keep selling with clear expectations set. Either can work. What goes badly is carrying on as if nothing's happening.
Valentine's Day and Early-Spring Promotions
Valentine's Day 2027 falls pretty much inside the CNY window, so gift sellers need to decide where those orders ship from.
Shipping from China means getting Valentine's orders out before the last dispatch date and putting a clear 'order by' date on your store. For the US, that's probably late January. If Valentine's is a big week for you, the other route is to send some stock to a warehouse in your main market before the holiday and fill late orders from there.
Early-spring launches in late February or March work the same way. Factories won't be at full speed until March, so plan around that.
What CNY Does to Shipping Costs
Costs move in a fairly predictable pattern around Chinese New Year. Before the holiday everybody tries to ship at the same time, so ocean and air rates usually rise from December into January, and carriers may add peak surcharges or general rate increases. During the holiday there are fewer sailings and flights, and trucking inside China is limited and expensive when you can find it. Afterward rates often ease off, though backlogs at ports and warehouses can add a few days.
You can keep the bill down in a few ways. Splitting shipments helps a lot: send most of your stock by sea well before the cutoff and hold back a smaller air shipment for top sellers. Volume weight is worth a look too, since repacking into smaller cartons or polybags can cut chargeable weight on air and parcels.
For restocks that aren't urgent, an economy line may be fine. Our guide on express vs economy shipping from China compares the two. Rates move fast in January, so get a quote early. Our shipping cost guide gives you a rough idea before you ask for a real number.
Duties and Paperwork Don't Take a Holiday
Customs rules keep running through Chinese New Year, and US rules changed a lot recently. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), goods from all countries lost duty-free de minimis treatment (the old $800 rule) from August 29, 2025. In practice that means a $20 parcel from China can owe duties when it lands in the US.
Decide who pays those duties before the holiday orders pile up. This is general information and not tax advice, so for your own products, check with a licensed customs broker.
DDP vs DDU for Orders Shipped Around CNY
There are two basic options:
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DDP (Delivered Duty Paid)
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DDU (Delivered Duty Unpaid)
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Who pays duties
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You, built into the shipping cost
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Your customer, on arrival, where applicable
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Customer experience
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No surprise bill at the door
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May get a duty or tax bill before delivery
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Good for
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Gifts, Valentine's orders, first-time buyers
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Higher-value or B2B orders where buyers expect it
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Things to check
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With SendFromChina, DDP applies to declared values up to $150 and doesn't cover Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico or Guam
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Tell customers upfront that they're responsible for any duties or VAT
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A duty bill at the door is a rough way to receive a Valentine's gift, so DDP deserves a close look for those orders.
Getting Declared Values and HS Codes Right
People get sloppy with paperwork in a holiday rush, and sloppy paperwork causes customs clearance delays. Before the break, check that every SKU has an accurate declared value, a correct HS code and a clear product description. A parcel held at customs in February because the description just says 'gift' is a very avoidable problem.
After the Lantern Festival: Restart, Backlog and Quality Checks
Factories don't snap back the day after the holiday. It's more like an old car on a cold morning that needs a while to warm up.
Workers come back in dribs and drabs. SEKO estimates factories often restart with only part of their workforce, and some workers don't return to the same employer at all, so new staff need training. Orders that didn't finish before the holiday get worked through first. And with new or rushed workers on the line, mistakes go up, so the first batch after CNY needs a proper check.
Plan your first post-holiday reorder for late February or early March, add a week or two to your normal lead times, and inspect that first batch. A simple warehouse quality control step before goods go out to customers catches a lot of problems early.
A Week-by-Week CNY 2027 Checklist (November to March)
Here's the whole plan on one page, so you can print it or share it with your team.
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When
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What to do
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|---|---|
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November 2026
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Forecast January to March demand. Ask suppliers for their CNY dates in writing. Mark the official break (Feb 5 to 13) and the make-up working days (Jan 31 and Feb 14) in your team calendar.
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Late Nov to early Dec
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Place final production orders for made-to-order items. Decide what ships by sea, air or parcel.
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Mid-December
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Book ocean and rail space. Ask your fulfillment warehouse for its holiday notice.
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Early January 2027
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Run pre-shipment inspections. Book air freight for Valentine's and top sellers. Check declared values and HS codes.
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Mid-January
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Last ocean loadings. Get stock into your China warehouse. Set your DDP or DDU choice.
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Late January
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Update handling times, delivery estimates and store banner. Last parcels out for Valentine's.
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Feb 5 to 13
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Official holiday, and many factories stay closed a few days longer. Orders queue. Reply to customers with your prepared message.
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Late February
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Warehouse clears the backlog. Factories restart after Feb 20. Place post-holiday reorders.
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Early to mid-March
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Inspect first post-holiday batches. Note what worked for CNY 2028.
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If you planned Q4 stock with something like our peak season inventory tips, this will look familiar. The difference is a hard stop in the middle.
Where SendFromChina Fits in Your CNY Plan
SendFromChina is a China-based 3PL. When your goods are made in China, a fulfillment partner there can take some of the CNY pressure off the parcel clock in particular.
You can keep your CNY cover stock in China warehousing close to your suppliers, so you aren't racing a container across the ocean in January. Orders from your store go through order fulfillment and pick and pack in the warehouse, where they're picked, packed and labeled, with custom packaging and inserts available as add-ons.
From there, international shipping sends parcels straight from China to your customers. Reference transit times are roughly 7 to 12 business days to the US, 3 to 6 to the UK, and 8 to 13 to Australia, Canada and the EU. These are estimates, not promises, and they vary by route, product type, customs and season. You can choose DDP or DDU for each market, within the limits in the duties section above.
Pricing works by quote. Costs are made up of storage, shipping, VAT where it applies, and pick and pack, plus optional packaging, barcodes and insurance. For this year's holiday schedule, including the last receiving date and the restart date, ask the SendFromChina team before you plan your January stock moves.
Conclusion
Chinese New Year 2027 comes early and runs right into Valentine's Day, and the slowdown around it lasts six to eight weeks. Sellers who get through it calmly mostly did the boring things on time. They ordered in early December, booked freight before Christmas, had stock in place by mid-January, and told customers what to expect.
Keep an eye on both clocks, get your suppliers' dates in writing and build in some buffer. After that you can enjoy the quiet week.
FAQs
When is Chinese New Year 2027?
Chinese New Year's Day is Saturday, February 6, 2027. New Year's Eve is Friday, February 5, and the Lantern Festival is Saturday, February 20. Under the State Council notice published on November 5, 2026, the official public holiday runs nine days, from February 5 to 13. Sunday, January 31 and Sunday, February 14 are make-up working days.
How long do Chinese factories close for Chinese New Year 2027?
Most factories close for roughly two to four weeks and start slowing down from mid-January. Many don't get back to full output until early or mid-March, so plan for a six to eight week window.
When should I place my last order before Chinese New Year 2027?
For made-to-order goods, aim for late November to early December 2026. In-stock items may have until early January, but confirm that with your supplier in writing.
What is the last day to ship from China before Chinese New Year?
There isn't one single date. Ocean cargo should be loaded by around mid-January and air freight booked by early to mid-January. Parcels usually keep going out until late January or early February. Check each carrier's and warehouse's holiday notice.
Do China fulfillment warehouses ship orders during Chinese New Year?
Most pause or run with a small crew around the official holiday. Orders placed in that time usually queue and ship once picking restarts. Ask your provider for its exact last dispatch and restart dates.
Will my order be delayed if I order during Chinese New Year?
Probably a bit. The order waits for the warehouse to reopen, then goes through the backlog, then normal transit. Allow one to three weeks more than in a normal month.
Does Chinese New Year affect shipping to the US and UK?
Yes. Departures from China slow down in the weeks before and after the holiday, and post-holiday backlogs can add a few days to transit. Plan for Valentine's Day deliveries to leave China by late January.
Do shipping rates go up before Chinese New Year?
Usually they do. Ocean and air rates often climb from December into January, and carriers may add peak surcharges. Booking early and splitting shipments between sea and air helps.
How much safety stock should I hold for Chinese New Year?
A common rule of thumb is about six to eight weeks of extra cover for fast-selling items. Base it on your own sales from January to March last year, and keep more for bestsellers.
When does shipping from China go back to normal after Chinese New Year?
Things start moving again after the Lantern Festival on February 20, 2027. Expect most production and logistics to be close to normal by early to mid-March.
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