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On October 1st, the Chinese National Day honors the formation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Similarly to the Lunar New Year, practically all businesses, including factories, are closed for one week. This unprecedented incident will have a tremendous impact on Ocean Freight. The Freight Forwarding Experts explain everything you need to know about this one-of-a-kind time of year.

Why Is the Golden Week Important in Ocean Freight?

While port activity and customs offices remain open, all Chinese manufacturers are idle during Golden Week, affecting most just-in-time supply chains and logistics operations in general.

Individual DHL Global Forwarding stations will organize on-duty workers to handle urgent situations over the Golden Week, but please keep in mind that ocean carriers frequently cancel sailings during this time.

The October Golden Week has been celebrated for decades and lasts seven days. Most shippers, who have subsequently altered their operations, are now aware of it: they ship out their cargo in the weeks preceding the Golden Week, resulting in what is frequently referred to as the pre-Golden Week rush.

Recognizing the Pre-Golden Week Rush

The Golden Week’s interruptions begin long before the festival is observed. Every year, two or three weeks before the National Day, there is a pre-Golden Week volume boom.

Ocean freight forwarders are caught in the crossfire of two primary factors:

Manufacturers must meet their customers’ requests ahead of the week-long holiday in preparation for the manufacturing shutdowns described above.
The commencement of the Christmas volume surge occurs in the weeks preceding the Golden Week. Ocean Freight’s Christmas season begins early!
The rush is not limited to container ships and manufacturing activity. All other logistical activities, including freight forwarding, naturally experience a surge in activity two to three weeks before the break and for a few days thereafter.

Even if you do not ship out of China, the Golden Week has an impact on you.

Volume increases are not often witnessed in other South-East Asian countries as a result of the Golden Week. That is not to argue that the holiday has no effect on them.

The pre-Golden Week rush, as well as the subsequent backlog of orders to fulfill, has an influence on all major Asia-Pacific services. Ocean carriers will devote greater space capacity to Chinese shipments, causing space constraints elsewhere. The rest of the world can only wait till the aforementioned backlog is cleared.

From mid-August until the end of September, there is a container scarcity in various South-East Asian countries along all main ocean shipping routes. Furthermore, ocean freight prices to the United States have reached all-time highs.

COVID-19 Will Not Slow the Volume Surge During the Golden Week in 2020

Contrary to popular belief, COVID-19’s influence will further exacerbate the volume increase and operational issues. Because China’s key export markets have been closed for a lengthy period of time, there has been a steady demand to refill depleted stockpiles in the United States, Europe, and Australia.

This demand is projected to stay high throughout the lead-up to Golden Week, with just a minor drop during the week-long holiday. And once the Golden Week rush is through, the rush to serve Western markets ahead of Christmas will keep the demand high.