China Shipping Calendar 2026: Chinese New Year & Holiday Planning

The two dates that matter most in 2026

Two closures do almost all the damage: Chinese New Year in February and Golden Week in October. Everything else on the calendar is a shorter, local speed bump. Plan production and freight bookings around these two windows first, then treat the rest as minor buffer padding.

Exact closure dates vary by factory — some shut down two full weeks before Chinese New Year, others run a skeleton crew straight through it. Confirm your specific supplier's calendar directly. This table is a planning baseline, not a guarantee from any individual factory.

How this hits ocean and air lead times

Both modes slow down in the weeks before and after Chinese New Year, so book earlier than you think you need to.

Ocean freight is the more exposed mode. Factories rush to finish orders before shutting down, which floods carriers with cargo in early-to-mid January, then leaves a lull once the holiday hits. Expect sailing schedules to tighten and container space to get harder to secure for several weeks on both sides of the closure. Golden Week produces a smaller version of the same pattern in late September and early October.

Air freight reacts faster and clears faster — capacity gets tight and rates run higher for a shorter window, typically the two to three weeks bracketing each closure, then it normalizes once factories are back to full staff.

None of that touches our side of the pipeline. Our Houston warehouse doesn't observe Chinese holidays — inventory that's already landed here keeps shipping on the same 2pm CT cutoff, Monday through Saturday, all year, with no peak-season surcharge added during CNY or Golden Week. The disruption is entirely upstream, in the factory and the ocean/air leg, which is exactly why holding a buffer here solves it. For help thinking through your specific route, see our China-to-US shipping guide.

What it actually costs to buffer inventory through Chinese New Year

The fix for CNY is inventory you already own, sitting in Houston before the closure starts. Here's what that costs at our published rates — no estimates, no markup.

Say you import 500 units on 10 pallets in December to cover the January–February gap:

That's roughly $2.65 per unit to carry inventory through the year's worst freight window — often cheaper than the lost sales from a single stockout week. Full terms are on our storage page.

1. Place production orders by mid-December so goods are finished before the pre-CNY rush.
2. Ship early enough that inventory lands in Houston — not still on the water — before the closure starts.
3. Let the buffer draw down through February and March while factories ramp back to full output.
4. Reorder once your supplier confirms normal lead times, usually 2–4 weeks after the holiday ends.

Questions we get every December and every August

The same questions come up ahead of every major closure. Straight answers:

Does receiving slow down when everyone ships inventory in at once before CNY? No. Receiving is $20 per pallet ($5 per carton) regardless of volume at the dock or one of twenty that week.

Is storage billed differently during peak season? No. Storage is $25 per pallet per month year-round — you pay for the fraction of the month you actually use, no peak-season surcharge, no holiday markup.

Does your same-day cutoff change during Golden Week or CNY? No. The 2pm CT cutoff, Monday through Saturday, holds all year because this is a Houston operation — we don't observe Chinese public holidays.

What if my container is delayed and misses my planned ship date? Once inventory is in our system, we work it same-day against the 2pm cutoff regardless of when it physically arrives. The delay sits upstream, in the factory or on the ocean/air leg — it doesn't change how we process what's already landed here.

Want the full rate sheet before committing to a buffer order? Check the KAK price list or the pricing page for every line item, or see how buffering compares to fulfilling from China versus the US. Ready to run the numbers for your own SKUs? Get a quote or reach out directly — both go to a real person, not a form queue.

FAQ: China holidays and shipping timing