Chinese New Year 2025

The festive period will affect production, logistics and transport in China due to public holidays and vacation days

The celebrations will last for 16 days, but manufacturing companies will be officially closed from 28 January to 4 February, also affecting transport options to and from China. For Hong Kong, there will be four closed days as the official holiday runs from Wednesday 29 January 2025 through Friday 31 January 2025. Generally, you can expect changed conditions in the weeks before and after the celebrations.

2025 is the Year of the Snake

Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is China's most important holiday. It marks the beginning of the new lunar year, the start of which varies from late January to mid-February. The festivities last for two weeks and culminate in the Lantern Festival. Each new cycle of the Chinese calendar is assigned one of the twelve animal signs, and each year is also assigned one of the five elements, providing a specific theme for the year.

Special circumstances

Traditionally, there has always been pressure on capacity on both sea and air freight around the Chinese New Year, so we recommend that you plan and book well in advance of departure to secure space and containers. As per last year, we are still experiencing extra pressure on capacity and containers due to the situation around the Red Sea and Suez. The consequence is longer transit times, which affects the number of ships that can make it back to Asia before the Chinese New Year. In co-operation with our local offices and agents, we are of course making every effort to continuously serve and inform our customers. If you have any questions, please reach out to your usual Blue Water contact person.