Chinese New Year 2027: How to Plan Production of Custom Parts in China

Chinese New Year is the largest scheduled interruption in the China production calendar, and it affects factories and their suppliers at the same time. For buyers of parts manufactured to their own drawings, it is the period of the year that requires the earliest planning. This article sets out the 2027 dates, the effects on manufacturing, and a planning timeline and checklist.

The 2027 dates

The Spring Festival, the first day of the first lunar month, falls on Saturday, 6 February 2027 ¹. The Lantern Festival, the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, which closes the New Year period, falls on Saturday, 20 February 2027 ¹⁵.

The official public holiday in mainland China is set each year by the General Office of the State Council. The notice for 2027 was published on 5 November 2026. It fixes the Spring Festival holiday from Friday, 5 February (New Year's Eve) to Saturday, 13 February 2027, a total of nine days, with Sunday, 31 January and Sunday, 14 February designated as make-up working days ². The notice also encourages employers and individuals to combine the holiday with paid annual leave to form longer breaks ². The equivalent notice for 2026 was published on 4 November 2025 ³. In recent years, the official dates have therefore been confirmed in November of the preceding year.

The official holiday is shorter than the effective break in production. In practice, many workers leave at least two weeks before the New Year and return in stages after the Lantern Festival ⁴, and factories stop mass production and sample development as early as one or two weeks before the holiday ¹³. For 2027, SEKO Logistics expects shutdowns to cluster between 30 January and 14 February, factories to reopen between about 20 February and 6 March, and many not to return to full capacity until early to mid-March ⁸. For planning purposes, treat the effective closure as starting about one to two weeks before the official holiday and lasting until production has fully resumed, which may be several weeks after the official holiday ends. Buyers should plan around this effective closure window, not the official dates alone.

Why the holiday affects manufacturing for longer than nine days

The official holiday is only the center of a much longer disruption. The New Year is the time when many factory workers travel home to their families ⁶⁸. Sourcing specialists report that production workers often leave well before the holiday and return in stages, with the first group coming back after the Lantern Festival and others following over the next few weeks ⁴. DHL describes the same pattern, noting that many workers return only after the Lantern Festival ⁵.

The scale of this movement is visible in the official travel season, known as chunyun. In 2026 it ran for 40 days, from 2 February to 13 March, beginning 15 days before the Spring Festival ⁶⁷, and recorded 9.4 billion inter-regional passenger trips ⁷. The 2027 travel season dates are announced separately. If the 2026 pattern is repeated, it would begin around 22 January 2027.

For production planning, the practical consequences are:

• Slowdown before the holiday. SEKO Logistics expects factories to begin reducing output three to four weeks ahead of the holiday, around 9 to 16 January 2027, with complete shutdowns clustering between 30 January and 14 February ⁸. DHL notes that factories begin winding down as early as mid-January ⁹.
• Gradual restart. SEKO expects factories to reopen between about 20 February and 6 March 2027, with many not returning to full capacity until early to mid-March ⁸. DHL notes that factories typically operate well below capacity for several weeks after the official holiday ⁵.
• Raw materials. As the shutdown approaches, manufacturers stop ordering materials they will not use until after the holiday, and material options narrow ¹⁰. After the holiday, getting raw materials back into the factory is one of the main sources of delay, because material and component suppliers have their own backlogs ¹⁰¹¹.
• Tooling and samples. New product development, tooling and prototype work largely stops over the holiday ¹². An inspection firm reports that factories stop mass production and sample development as early as one or two weeks before the holiday ¹³. One contract manufacturer advises adding four to five weeks to tooling lead times that overlap the holiday ¹².
• Inspection and rework time. In the pre-holiday rush, problems found at final inspection may leave too little time for rework before shipment ¹¹.
• Freight capacity. SEKO expects ocean rates to start climbing in mid-December and the tightest capacity from mid-January through late February 2027 ⁸. DHL advises securing freight space at least four to six weeks ahead of the holiday ⁹.

A planning timeline for 2027

The dates below count back from the Spring Festival on 6 February 2027. They are built around the effective closure window, not the official holiday of 5 to 13 February: work may stop one to two weeks before the holiday ⁴¹³, and full production may not resume until early to mid-March ⁸. They are planning targets: each part has its own lead time, and the schedule for a specific order is confirmed with the factory when the order is placed.

Early to mid-November 2026: finalize drawings and send RFQs. Complete drawings, specifications, finishes, quantities and inspection requirements should be issued now, and any drawing change approved in writing before production. Projects that require a new injection mold or other dedicated tooling should be released as early as possible. SEKO advises ordering complex or custom products five to six months ahead of the holiday ⁸. A tooling project released in November 2026 will most likely span the holiday, and its schedule should be built on that basis rather than on a pre-holiday finish.

Late November to early December 2026: place purchase orders. SEKO advises finalizing all production orders eight to ten weeks before the holiday, which for 2027 means late November to early December 2026 ⁸.

December 2026: confirm materials and approve first articles. Material for the order should be secured in December, before material options narrow as the holiday approaches ¹⁰. Where first-article samples are required, they should be approved in December; an approval that slips into January may push series production past the factory's last working day.

Mid-December 2026 to early January 2027: book freight. Following DHL's guidance of four to six weeks ahead of the holiday ⁹, EXW buyers should instruct their forwarders by late December 2026 or the first days of January 2027, with the factory address and the planned ready date.

Early to mid-January 2027: complete inspection and release. The order should be inspected, released and ready at the factory before the pre-holiday slowdown that SEKO places around 9 to 16 January ⁸.

Before late January 2027: collection. The buyer's forwarder should collect the goods before shutdowns begin to cluster at the end of January ⁸.

From late February 2027: restart. Orders placed for production after the holiday should allow for the gradual restart into March ⁵⁸.

After the holiday: restart and quality

The weeks after the holiday carry their own risks. A share of workers do not return to their previous employers, and new staff may not yet be fully trained on the parts in production ¹¹. Sourcing specialists report that the period just before and after the holiday is when the most quality issues arise, including on regular repeat orders ⁴¹¹. DHL notes that quality control processes must be re-established after the holiday, with new team members on board ⁵.

For custom parts, this has three practical consequences:

1. Re-verify the first parts after restart. Even for a repeat part, the first production after the holiday should be checked against the drawing before the batch continues.
2. Check new material lots. Where material is sourced after the holiday, material reports should be checked against the specification.
3. Do not compress inspection to recover time. Schedules lost in the restart are best recovered by planning, not by shortening final inspection.

EXW orders: ready and collected before closure

Under EXW, as defined in the Incoterms® 2020 rules, the seller delivers when it places the goods at the disposal of the buyer at a named place, and the buyer contracts or arranges the carriage from that place ¹⁴. Before Chinese New Year, this places two requirements on the buyer.

First, the order must be both ready and collected before the factory closes. An order that passes inspection on the last working day but is not collected may wait at the factory for several weeks. The planned ready date should therefore include a margin for the forwarder to arrange collection.

Second, freight should be booked early, because carrier space before the holiday is limited and rates rise ⁸⁹. The forwarder needs the collection address, the planned ready date and the packed weights and dimensions, and export documents should be agreed in advance. Confirm the export formalities and booking deadlines for your shipment with your forwarder or customs adviser.

A practical checklist

• Confirm the 2027 dates in your plan: holiday 5 to 13 February, make-up working days 31 January and 14 February, Lantern Festival 20 February ¹².
• Plan around the effective closure window, from about one to two weeks before the holiday until production has fully resumed, which may be early to mid-March ⁸¹³.
• Issue complete drawings and specifications in November 2026, and resolve every drawing question in writing before the order is placed.
• Release tooling projects immediately, and plan for a mold schedule that spans the holiday.
• Place purchase orders by late November to early December 2026 ⁸.
• Schedule first-article approval in December.
• Agree the planned ready date, inspection and release before the pre-holiday slowdown in mid-January ⁸.
• Book freight with your forwarder four to six weeks before the holiday ⁹, and confirm the collection date.
• For post-holiday orders, allow for a gradual restart into March and plan first-part verification after restart ⁵⁸.
• Consider whether demand for the first quarter of 2027 should be covered by orders completed before the holiday ¹⁰.

How PAXIS supports Chinese New Year planning

PAXIS confirms the production schedule with the factory when the order is placed, taking the factory's holiday closure into account. Our team in China follows production to the agreed schedule and verifies quality at the factory before the order is released. When the order is ready at the factory, we help your forwarder arrange collection on EXW terms. Quotations are issued within two to three working days of receiving complete drawings and specifications; complex projects may require additional engineering review. To plan your orders ahead of Chinese New Year 2027, request a quote.

Note

This article is general planning information and is not legal or customs advice. Incoterms® is a trademark of ICC; its use here does not imply association with, approval of or sponsorship by ICC. Further information on the Incoterms® rules is available from the ICC website, iccwbo.org.