When Do Chinese Factories Reopen After Chinese New Year?

When factories reopen: distinguish the holiday from the production restart

Treat office reopening, production restart and readiness to ship as separate milestones. Ask whether workers, materials and equipment are ready for your order rather than relying on a reply to your message.

China’s national holiday rules specify 4 statutory Spring Festival holiday days: Lunar New Year’s Eve and the first three days of the first lunar month. The State Council General Office’s annual arrangements specify holiday periods and adjusted working days. These documents do not establish an individual factory’s order-specific production schedule.

The checklist below is planning advice, not a verified description of every supplier’s reopening pattern. Consult the Chinese New Year 2027 hub and China holiday calendar, checking any dates against the relevant official notice. Use the 2027 factory closure dates guide alongside the supplier’s own closure and restart notice.

What does “we are back” mean for your order?

Ask the supplier which milestone it has reached. Obtain order-specific confirmation of material availability and a production slot rather than treating a general reopening announcement as confirmation.

Check workers, materials and subcontracted processes separately

Ask whether the operators, technicians and quality staff needed for your product are available. Request the relevant team’s return schedule rather than inferring staffing from an office reopening date.

Do not treat the Lantern Festival as evidence of full staffing, available capacity or a cleared backlog. Obtain a production date for your order.

Confirm availability of raw materials, components, packaging and any subcontracted processing. Ask for the expected delivery or completion date of each outstanding input.

Request the specific constraint affecting your order and the next confirmed milestone. Ask the supplier to replace “after the holiday” with a dated schedule.

Do large factories restart sooner than small factories?

Do not assume a restart date from factory size. Ask each supplier for its staffing plan, available capacity, outstanding orders and the processes required for your product.

Before accepting a delivery promise, check the actual production site and the availability of critical materials, equipment and personnel.

For a custom item, confirm who will make it and whether materials are ready. For a small business order, confirm its position in the production queue. For purchases involving several sites or subcontractors, check each relevant site and process.

What to confirm before accepting a new delivery date

Request a written order update covering material availability, production start, expected completion, agreed inspection and collection. Ask the supplier to identify which milestones are confirmed and which remain estimates.

Check whether your order is awaiting sample approval, artwork, a specification decision or an agreed payment. Resolve buyer-side dependencies promptly, while checking any changed payment instructions independently.

Keep production time separate from inspection, collection, international transit and destination clearance. Use the working-day lead-time guide when asking the supplier to explain its counting method.

For a production evidence checklist, consult the post-holiday production verification guide. Agree the evidence required before changing customer promises or authorising a payment tied to a production milestone.

Ask your forwarder what can be booked against the current goods-ready estimate, and what happens if that estimate changes. Obtain production and transport confirmations before promising an arrival date.

A UK example: check the cost of changing the shipping plan

Suppose a buyer importing into Great Britain considers faster transport after a delayed restart. Compare the revised landed cost as well as the possible time saving.

HMRC’s guidance includes transport, related delivery charges and transit insurance up to the UK place of introduction in customs value. For air freight, apply the relevant apportionment rules. Import VAT valuation starts with customs value and adds applicable import duties and charges, excluding VAT itself, plus qualifying incidental expenses to the first UK destination and to a further UK destination known at importation. Avoid adding costs already included.

For EU, US or other destinations, ask the relevant customs authority or your customs representative how the revised shipment affects valuation and import charges. Keep the destination calculation separate from the factory’s production forecast.

Getting help with an uncertain reopening promise

If contacting Cambridge China Bridge, provide the product specification, order status, supplier’s reopening message and required arrival date. Ask whether it can review the schedule, check the supplier or assess the revised quotation.

Before commissioning work, agree the scope, required evidence and deliverables in writing.

Request written confirmation of fees, whether factory checks and goods inspections are included, and whether any third-party costs require separate approval.

Sources and scope

The official holiday sources listed below support the statutory holiday rule and annual holiday scheduling. The 2026 notice does not establish 2027 dates or an individual factory’s reopening date.

HMRC sources support the UK valuation example. The reopening checklist presents questions and possible dependencies to investigate; it does not establish industry-wide reopening patterns, supplier performance or Cambridge China Bridge’s service terms.