Every year, factories across China and much of East Asia close for Lunar New Year. Production stops for one to two weeks officially and often longer in practice, as workers travel home and return at their own pace. The shutdown itself isn’t the problem — it’s entirely predictable. The problem is the surge on either side of it.
For importers, this creates two distinct pressure points: a rush of cargo trying to ship before the holiday, and a slow, uneven recovery afterward. Both land on your drayage operation weeks later.
What actually happens
The pre-holiday surge
Everyone tries to get product out before factories close. Demand for space spikes, rates firm, and bookings get tight. Containers that don’t make the cutoff wait until production resumes.
This is when rolled containers become common — vessels fill, and the lowest-priority bookings get bumped.
The shutdown
Production stops. Sailings continue for a while on cargo already loaded, then thin out. Origin-side communication slows considerably.
The recovery
Factories restart gradually. Workers return over several weeks, so capacity ramps rather than switches on. Quality issues are somewhat more common during ramp-up. Then the backlog ships — often all at once.
The landside arrival wave
Here’s where it becomes your problem. Cargo that shipped over a compressed window arrives over a compressed window. Terminal volumes spike, appointment slots get scarce, chassis supply tightens, and warehouse receiving capacity gets tested.
Allowing for ocean transit, the South Florida arrival impact typically lands several weeks after the holiday — meaning the surge you have to absorb is on the water while the origin is still quiet.
Why Miami importers should care even if they don’t buy from Asia
Two reasons.
First, capacity is shared. Terminal appointments, chassis and drayage trucks in South Florida serve all cargo. When Asian volume surges, your Caribbean or Latin American container competes for the same slots.
Second, transshipment. A significant share of Miami’s volume connects Asian origins to Caribbean and Latin American destinations. The wave passes through here whether it stops or not. See Caribbean and Latin America transshipment.
Planning before the holiday
Set your cutoff early and work backward
Decide what has to ship pre-holiday, then back out production lead time, inland transit at origin and booking lead time. “Ship before Lunar New Year” as an instruction issued two weeks ahead is not a plan.
Don’t over-order into a single arrival window
Pulling forward an entire quarter is tempting and frequently backfires: you pay to store it, and it all arrives in the same week. Balance the stockout risk against the cost of handling a wall of containers at once.
Book ocean space ahead
Space tightens before rates do. Confirmed bookings are worth more than favorable spot rates you can’t use.
Warn your drayage carrier
Give your carrier a volume forecast for the arrival window. Equipment and driver capacity can be planned for, but not conjured on the day. This is the same discipline as peak season planning.
Line up overflow storage in advance
If containers will arrive faster than you can strip them, arrange yard storage before you need it. Capacity booked during the surge costs more and may not exist.
Managing the arrival wave
Pre-pull aggressively
When appointment slots are scarce and free time is short, getting containers out of the terminal early is the highest-leverage move available. It converts an uncontrollable constraint into a controllable one. See what is a pre-pull.
Prioritize by free time, not by arrival order
The container closest to its last free day should move first, regardless of when it landed or how urgently sales wants it. Demurrage accrues per day and doesn’t care about your priorities. See last free day in drayage.
Use drop-and-hook wherever your dock allows
During a surge, live unloads consume driver hours you can’t spare. Dropping containers lets a single driver complete more moves per day. See drop-and-hook vs. live unload.
Return empties promptly
Per diem is the quiet cost of a surge. Containers stacking up in your yard because nobody has time to return them will generate a significant and entirely avoidable bill. See empty container returns.
Consider transloading to decouple
Stripping containers into trailers or pallets lets you return equipment fast and hold product flexibly. See container transloading in Miami.
Staff your receiving dock for the peak week
Your dock throughput determines how fast the wave clears. One extra forklift operator for two weeks is usually cheaper than the detention and per diem generated by a bottleneck.
After the wave
Two things are worth doing while it’s fresh:
- Measure what it actually cost. Demurrage, per diem, detention, storage, expedite fees. Compare against the inventory cost you were avoiding by pulling orders forward.
- Record where it broke. Appointments, chassis, dock capacity, driver availability? Next year’s plan should target the specific constraint, not the general problem.
Our drayage KPIs guide covers the measures worth tracking.
The underlying point
Lunar New Year is one of the few supply chain disruptions that is fully scheduled in advance. It is the easiest one to plan for and one of the most commonly mishandled — usually because the planning happens on the ocean side and stops at the port.
Go Drayage plans capacity around known arrival surges at PortMiami and Port Everglades, with yard storage available when containers land faster than docks can clear them. Send us your forecast and we’ll build the port-side plan.
Frequently asked questions
How long do Chinese factories close for Lunar New Year?
The official public holiday runs about a week, but practical disruption is longer. Many factories close for two weeks or more, and production ramps back gradually as workers return over several weeks. Plan on a multi-week effective slowdown rather than the official dates.
When does the post-holiday surge reach South Florida ports?
Some weeks after factories restart, once the backlog is produced and shipped and ocean transit is complete. The practical implication is that you should be arranging drayage capacity and overflow storage while the origin still looks quiet — by the time containers appear on the vessel schedule, capacity is already being booked.
Should I pull orders forward ahead of the holiday?
Partially, for items where a stockout is costly. Pulling everything forward tends to shift the cost rather than remove it — you pay for storage, handling and a compressed arrival week instead. A staged approach that spreads arrivals usually beats a single large pre-holiday buy.