Sea freight from China affected by “Golden Week”

12 October 2017

Every year at the beginning of October, China celebrates “Golden Week”. During this festive week, everyone is free. This also means that work in factories and harbours quietens, which has an impact on all imports from China. As an importer, what should you consider, and how do you prevent planning problems? We outline this for you below.

Cargo space varies greatly

This year, Golden Week took place from 1 to 8 October. Traditionally, in the period prior to the festival week there is great pressure on ship capacity. Everyone wants to ship their goods as quickly as possible in advance of the holidays. Often this results in there not being enough space for all the cargo, so it will only ship after Golden Week.

In addition, there are regular Blank Sailings after Golden Week. This means that departures are being deleted because there is simply too little cargo. This arises because production stops during Golden Week. Unfortunately, it is only known at the last moment which departures this applies to.

Prevent planning problems

Longer holiday periods occur regularly in Asian production countries. When importers do not take this into account in planning, things can quickly get out of hand.

Of course, you want to prevent any impact on your schedules at all times. To help you here, we have made an overview of the most important holidays. You can download the “production countries holiday calendar” here. In this way, you can be well prepared throughout the year.