The pattern repeats every year. Manufacturing across the region winds down for the holiday, buyers pull orders forward to ship before the shutdown, and the weeks immediately beforehand see the sharpest capacity crunch and firmest rates of the quarter. Then volumes fall away, and factories restart gradually rather than all at once.
None of this is a surprise, which makes it one of the cheapest risks to manage. Firm up bookings well ahead of the rush, treat post-holiday restart times as approximate, and avoid promising a delivery date that depends on a factory returning to full output the week it reopens. The companies that struggle are almost always the ones that planned as though the calendar did not exist.
Harbour Strategies (HK) Limited · 16 January 2024
Editorial commentary by Harbour Strategies. Figures and regulatory details should be verified against primary sources before being relied upon.
