What is Golden Week in Shipping?
Golden Week is an annual celebration commemorating the founding of the People’s Republic of China. It kicks off a 7-day Golden Week festival, including parades, ceremonies, and other displays. Golden Week can have a profound impact in Shipping and supplychains.
Where Is Golden Week Celebrated?
Chinese National Day Golden Week (October 1–7): Celebrates the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949. This is the most significant Golden Week in China, and people enjoy a week-long break. During this period, there are large-scale national celebrations, with activities such as parades, fireworks, and cultural performances.
This is not to be mistaken with Golden Week in Japan. Where a collection of four national holidays that occur in close succession from the end of April to the beginning of May, making it one of the longest holiday periods in the country.
When Is Golden Week in Shipping?
Golden Week is usually celebrated from October 1-7 (sometimes the holiday will be longer to include “Mid-Autumn Festival”, which is based on the Lunar calendar). Factories will be closed for the holiday week, with operations resuming on the day after the holiday. This pauses supply chains from the source. Utimately it has a whiplash affect down the road into American Warehouses.
How Will Golden Week Impact Supply Chains?
As October 1 approaches, importers rush to complete production and secure shipments before Golden Week, which tightens freight space and drives up prices for both ocean and airfreight. With carriers more overbooked than usual, cargo may be rolled to later departures.
Additional impacts include:
- Trucking services: Increased demand will raise trucking prices at origin.
- Blank sailings: With factories closed, carriers may announce blank sailings post-holiday to optimize vessel usage.
Golden Week is comparable to Chinese New Year, where a similar rush to ship goods creates higher demand and reduced capacity, leading to surcharges like Peak Season Surcharge (PSS) and General Rate Increase (GRI) on spot rates.
How to Prepare For Golden Week in Shipping?
To ensure your shipments arrive in time for the winter holidays during Golden Week, it’s important to prepare early. For ocean shipments, booking should be done 3-4 weeks before Golden Week, while air shipments need to be booked at least 1 week in advance. This early planning is essential to avoid delays during the holiday period when shipping capacity becomes tight.
Peak Season Shipping Tips
For peak season shipping, working closely with your logistics team is key. Share your shipping forecasts as early as possible and secure space in advance. Prioritize your most urgent shipments and maintain consistency in your shipping patterns, as this helps carriers give preference to your cargo. Additionally, be flexible by considering alternate ports or services with slightly longer transit times, and explore transloading options. For urgent shipments, airfreight is a viable, though expensive, option due to high demand and limited capacity. From there, your goods should arrive in time for fulfillment during the Black Friday and the American holiday season.
Golden Week in Shipping – Conclusion
Ensure all goods arriving before or during Golden Week are paid for in advance to avoid storage charges. Shipments that are not released in time may incur additional costs.
