Seko 建议中国采购货主提前四周订舱应对春节提前

By [email protected]

28 October 2026

Seko logistics is urging shippers sourcing from China to bring forward purchase orders and confirm ocean bookings at least four weeks ahead of shipment, as an earlier lunar new year in 2027 threatens to compress the window for moving cargo before factory closures.

Falling 11 days earlier than in 2026, next year’s holiday starts on 6 February, and Seko MD for the UK and Ireland Paul Lockwood told The Loadstar: “We are already seeing customers adjust critical path planning to bring their ex-factory dates forward to allow for the earlier lunar new year.

“One customer has advised they raised their purchase order with their suppliers three weeks before the typical purchase order date to account for this, and to ensure they are not ‘back of the queue’ in the production cycle.”

The move reflects growing concern that orders placed too late could miss pre-holiday shipping windows and face delays as exporters compete for capacity, shippers already battling disruption across Asian container networks.

Analysis from Sea-Intelligence found vessel delays, caused by typhoons and port disruption, had absorbed around 3m teu of global container capacity, equivalent to 8.5% of the total, compared with a 2011-19 average of 2.2%.

“At the same time, ocean carriers typically introduce additional blanked sailings around the lunar new year period, while exporters concentrate shipments into the weeks immediately before the holiday,” a spokesperson for Seko’s China office told The Loadstar.

“This makes the pre-holiday period one of the busiest times of the year for China’s exports. We therefore recommend placing bookings at least four weeks in advance and building sufficient time into factory completion, origin collection and port delivery plans.”

The spokesperson noted that relatively few factories had formally announced their 2027 holiday schedules, but existing plans indicated that production shutdowns would vary by region, with those Seko works with in northern China planning a 25 January-15 February shutdown.

However, local practices in some regions often see manufacturers beginning the holiday period up to a week ahead of the spring festival and not fully resuming operations until after the Lantern Festival on 20 February.

In southern China, the downtime is expected to be even longer, with some operators set to shut down three weeks ahead of the festivities and not be back up to full production for a fortnight after the holiday.

Seko Logistics’ client solutions group director for the UK & Ireland, Dan Eckett, said: “Ocean freight is heavily impacted in the weeks leading up to the new year, as exporters accelerate shipments ahead of factory closures.

“This creates pressure on vessel space, equipment availability and carrier schedules, so we typically recommend building an additional one to two weeks into transit plans and ensuring supplier bookings are confirmed well before that three-week threshold, not after it.”

For UK importers, this means production completion dates and port cutoffs must be worked backwards from the intended sailing, with contingency built in for delays at origin, if they are to avoid the viable albeit economically questionable airfreight and sea-air services.