How long do Chinese factories close for Chinese New Year?
The official public holiday is 7 days, but most factories stop taking meaningful production 1 to 2 weeks before it and take 1 to 2 weeks after to return to normal output. Treat the real disruption as 2 to 4 weeks of lost production, sometimes more for small suppliers.
When is Chinese New Year in 2027?
Chinese New Year falls on February 6, 2027. Factories typically wind down from mid-January, and many do not return to full, reliable output until late February or early March.
Andrew Erickson is the founder of Inventory Hero. He has spent years working with Amazon FBA sellers on demand forecasting, restock planning, and the cash flow side of running a private-label brand. Inventory Hero exists because every spreadsheet-based inventory system he tried eventually broke — usually right before Q4.
When should Amazon sellers place orders before Chinese New Year?
Commit purchase orders for Q1 and spring inventory by the end of November. That gives your supplier a December production slot, time for a pre-holiday quality inspection, and a freight booking before rates spike and vessels fill in January.
Does Chinese New Year affect shipping rates?
Yes. Ocean freight demand surges ahead of the closure as every importer ships at once, so rates typically rise from mid-December through late January and space gets scarce. Book 3 to 4 weeks ahead of your intended ship date and expect longer port queues.
Chinese New Year factory closures are the single most underestimated event in an Amazon seller's supply-chain calendar. The official holiday is 7 days. The real disruption, once you count the pre-holiday rush, the actual closure, and the slow ramp back, is closer to a month, and sometimes six weeks. The planning answer is simple and uncomfortable: commit your Q1 purchase orders by the end of November, while you are still deep in Q4 selling.
CNY 2027 begins February 6, 2027.1 Here is how the disruption actually plays out, and the calendar that keeps you in stock through it. (Sourcing domestically or outside China? Most of this article does not apply to you, though the freight-rate squeeze can still touch trans-Pacific lanes you share.)
Plan on 2 to 4 weeks of lost production, not the 7-day statutory holiday. The closure has three phases, and each one costs you differently:
Phase
Timing (CNY 2027)
What happens
The rush
Mid-December to late January
Factories cram orders in before the break. Workers start leaving early. Output rises, consistency drops.
The closure
Roughly February 1 to 20
Lines stop. Offices go quiet. Many factories are effectively dark for 2 to 4 weeks around the February 6 holiday.
The ramp
Late February through March
Workers trickle back, new hires get trained, early runs need extra inspection. Full output returns gradually.
The ramp is the phase sellers forget. Factory labor in China is heavily migratory, and every year some share of workers simply do not return after the holiday; sourcing and inspection firms routinely warn clients to expect meaningful post-CNY turnover, especially at smaller factories.2 New workers get hired and trained on your product, which is why the first post-holiday production runs carry the highest defect risk of the year.
Commit your Q1 and spring purchase orders by the end of November. That is the deadline that makes everything downstream work, and it lands before Q4 selling even ends, which is exactly why sellers miss it.
Working backward from the February 6, 2027 holiday:
Deadline
Why
End of November 2026
PO committed. Your supplier can slot production in December, while their best workers are still on the line.
Mid-December 2026
Production underway. Freight rates start climbing around now.
Early to mid January 2027
Goods finished and inspected. Book ocean freight 3 to 4 weeks before this ship date.
Late January 2027
Cargo on the water before the closure.
February to March 2027
Factory dark, then ramping. You are covered because your stock is already moving.
One warning on the November date: committing a PO is not the same as holding a production slot. Factories overbook the December window because every client is racing the same closure, so confirm capacity with your supplier in October, in writing, before you count on it.
Miss the November commit and your realistic next delivery slides to April or May. The math: a factory that reopens around February 20 and ramps through March finishes your 45-day production run in April at best, and ocean transit plus Amazon check-in add another 5 to 7 weeks on top.
Add roughly 4 to 6 weeks of cover on top of your normal lead time demand for any order that spans the closure. Worked example:
Input
Value
Baseline velocity
20 units/day
Normal total lead time
90 days (production + ocean + check-in)
CNY effective delay
+35 days
Safety stock
14 days x 20 = 280 units
Normal cycle: 20 x 90 + 280 = 2,080 units. Spanning CNY: 20 x 125 + 280 = 2,780 units. That extra 700 units is not overstock, it is the closure made visible in your order quantity. Run your own numbers in the reorder point calculator, then stretch the lead-time input for any cycle that crosses February.
If you are already mid-cycle, with an order in transit right now, you do not need a separate "CNY order." Fold the buffer into your next regular PO: add the closure delay to the lead time on that order and let the quantity math absorb it. The failure mode is running your November reorder on the normal 90-day assumption and discovering the 125-day reality in January, when the only fix left is air freight.
If cash is tight, remember the trade-off runs through your minimum order quantity too: a bigger pre-CNY order may push you into a better price break, but do not let a discount bury your cash in inventory you will still be holding in June. Our MOQ guide covers how to negotiate that conversation.
Because the two riskiest production windows of the year sit on either side of the holiday. Before the closure, factories are rushing to clear order books with a shrinking workforce, and experienced workers often leave for home early. After the closure, lines restart with new hires who have never built your product.
Three defenses, in order of value:
Get your production into December, not the last pre-holiday week. This is the real payoff of the November PO commit.
Book a third-party inspection before the closure. A pre-shipment inspection in December or early January catches rush-induced defects while the factory can still rework them.
Inspect the first post-holiday run as if the supplier were new. For the March ramp, they effectively are.
Every importer ships at the same time, so space tightens and rates climb from roughly mid-December through late January. Book your ocean freight 3 to 4 weeks ahead of your intended ship date during this window, versus the week-or-so booking notice that works most of the year.
Expect the squeeze to show up as some combination of higher spot rates, rolled bookings, and longer port queues on both sides of the Pacific. If a shipment absolutely must land before the closure-driven gap, air freight is the emergency lever: roughly half the door-to-door time at several times the ocean cost per unit. Price that against the cost of a stockout before assuming it is too expensive. For the full door-to-door timeline this all slots into, see our importing from China guide and the multi-leg breakdown in what is lead time.
End of November: commit the Q1 and spring POs, before Q4 selling ends, so your factory builds them ahead of the February closure.
Sellers who treat the November PO as part of Q4 planning glide through March fully stocked while their competitors quote April restock dates. That gap shows up directly in rank, reviews, and the spring sales that compound off both.
Chinese New Year factory closures take out 2 to 4 weeks of production plus a slow, error-prone ramp, and the only clean counter is to order early: Q1 POs committed by the end of November, freight booked 3 to 4 weeks ahead, and an extra 4 to 6 weeks of cover on any cycle that spans February. Put the November deadline on your calendar now, next to your Black Friday prep, because they are due at the same time.
Chinese New Year follows the lunisolar calendar and moves each year; the 2027 new year falls on February 6, 2027, per published Chinese public-holiday calendars. The government announces the exact statutory holiday schedule late in the prior year. ↩
Post-holiday labor turnover and multi-week effective closures around Chinese New Year are consistently reported in guidance from China-based sourcing, quality-inspection, and freight-forwarding firms. Exact impact varies by factory size and region; verify your own supplier's closure dates directly each fall. ↩