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Chinese New Year 2027: The Deadlines That Matter Now

Updated October 2026 · 4 min read

Golden Week is behind us, so the next big factory shutdown is Chinese New Year on 6 February 2027. That is eleven days earlier than in 2026, and it pulls every deadline forward.

What the Shutdown Really Costs

The official public holiday is expected to run roughly from 5 to 11 February. The State Council usually publishes the exact schedule in November, so treat those dates as provisional. The official holiday is not the real problem though. Many factories run skeleton crews for two to three weeks beforehand as workers travel home, close fully during the holiday, then ramp back up unevenly over the following month. For many categories that adds up to four to six weeks of lost reliable capacity.

Your Countdown

• Now: new products that still need samples or tooling should already be in sampling.
• By mid-November: confirm repeat orders and sign off final samples.
• Early January: production finishing, so goods can be inspected before staff leave.
• Mid-January: the last realistic window to load sea freight before the holiday.

Further Ahead in 2027

Expected dates, still to be confirmed by the State Council: Qingming in early April, Labour Day 1 to 5 May, Dragon Boat Festival on 9 June, Mid-Autumn Festival on 15 September and Golden Week from 1 to 7 October.

Need help mapping your production calendar? Get in touch and we will work backwards from your ship date.

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Sea Freight in Autumn 2026: Europe Got Cheaper, the US Did Not

Updated October 2026 · 4 min read

Freight is one of the biggest swing factors in your landed cost, and the picture has flipped since the summer. Here is where things stood in early October 2026. As always, check a live index before you budget.

Where Rates Sit Right Now

In the week of 8 October 2026, Drewry’s composite World Container Index stood at $4,351 per 40ft container. By lane: Shanghai to Rotterdam $3,337, Shanghai to Genoa $3,696, Shanghai to Los Angeles $7,624 and Shanghai to New York $10,220.

Why the Two Directions Split

Since late July, Shanghai to Rotterdam has dropped by roughly a third while Shanghai to Los Angeles rose by about 30 percent. Asia to Europe rates have now fallen for 13 weeks in a row. The main driver is that ships are returning to the Suez Canal faster than expected, which puts capacity back into the Europe trade. Carriers are trying to lift rates again with higher FAK levels in late October, but whether that sticks is unclear.

What This Means for You

For European importers this is a good window to book cargo that has to arrive before Chinese New Year, but do not plan on it lasting. For US importers, budget for freight that costs more than twice the Europe rate. Either way, Drewry publishes its index every Thursday, and that is the number to check before you commit.

Planning a shipment? Let’s talk logistics and we will quote against live rates, not a stale number.

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Import Duties on Chinese Goods: Where Things Stand in Autumn 2026

Updated October 2026 · 5 min read

“How much will customs cost me?” is the question we hear most, and the answer kept moving in 2026. Here is a practical overview for US and EU importers.

What Import Duties Are

Import duties are taxes charged when goods cross the border, calculated as a percentage of the declared value, usually the CIF value covering cost, insurance and freight. They are separate from VAT or sales tax.

HS Codes Decide Everything

Every product gets a Harmonized System code of six to ten digits, and that code sets your duty rate. A wrong code is expensive either way: you overpay for years without noticing, or you underpay and face penalties and back duties.

The US Picture

Core Section 301 duties on Chinese goods remain in place: 25% on most goods in Lists 1 to 3 and 7.5% on List 4A, with far higher rates for strategic categories. On 24 July 2026 the temporary 10% Section 122 surcharge expired, and a new Section 301 duty tied to forced labour import rules took effect the same minute. For China it is 12.5%, and unlike Section 122 it has no end date. It is already being challenged in court.

Also worth knowing: the Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA tariffs in February 2026, the de minimis exemption for low-value shipments is gone, and the current set of 178 Section 301 product exclusions runs out around 10 November 2026. If your product relies on one of them, check now whether it gets renewed. How the new layer stacks with existing duties depends on the product, so confirm with your customs broker.

The EU Picture

Customs duty typically runs 0 to 14% depending on the category, plus import VAT of 19 to 21% depending on the country. The VAT is reclaimable if you are VAT registered. New since 1 July 2026: small parcels under €150 are no longer duty free. More on that in our separate article.

How We Help

We pin down HS codes before production, calculate landed cost including duty so your margins are real, and choose incoterms that suit your tax position.

Tariff policy moved repeatedly in 2026 and court cases are ongoing. Treat every published rate, including these, as a starting point to verify.

Not sure what your duties would look like? Book a free call and we will give you a realistic landed cost breakdown.

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Child-Resistant Packaging: What Certification Actually Requires

Published July 2026 · 6 min read

Child-resistant packaging gets treated like a design feature, something you specify and a factory delivers. It is not. CR is a test result, and a supplier who cannot show you the test report has not sold you compliant packaging. If you sell regulated products into the US, that distinction is legal, not cosmetic.

Two Standards, Two Different Jobs

Buyers routinely conflate these. ASTM D3475 is a voluntary classification standard. It categorises child-resistant package formats and guides design and selection, so it tells you what type of closure you are dealing with. It does not certify anything. 16 CFR 1700.20 is the regulatory test protocol under the Poison Prevention Packaging Act, enforced by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and it is the one that determines whether a package is legally child resistant. If a supplier tells you a package “meets ASTM”, ask separately whether it passed 1700.20 protocol testing.

What the Test Actually Measures

Child-Resistant Effectiveness uses a panel of 50 children aged 42 to 51 months. They are shown how to open the package and told they may use their teeth. At least 85% must fail to open it within the first five minutes, and at least 80% must still have failed across the full ten minutes.

Senior Adult Use Effectiveness uses adults aged 50 to 70. At least 90% must be able to open the package within five minutes and, where the design requires resecuring, close it properly within one further minute.

That second panel is the one buyers forget. A package a child cannot open is easy to make. A package a child cannot open and a 68 year old can is the actual engineering problem, and it is where cheap closures fail.

What to Ask Your Supplier

Ask for the test report, not a claim. Specifically: which protocol was tested, the panel sizes, the pass percentages at both intervals for children and both intervals for seniors, the test date, and the laboratory. Then ask whether the report covers the exact closure and container combination you are buying, because a cap certified on one bottle geometry is not automatically certified on another.

Why This Trips People Up

A factory can honestly say a closure design is child resistant because that design passed somewhere, while your specific pairing has never been tested. Certification attaches to a tested configuration, not to a concept. Changing the container, the liner, the torque specification, or in some cases even the decoration, can put you outside what the report actually covers.

How We Handle It

We ask for the report before quoting, check that it covers your exact configuration, and flag when a change you have requested would invalidate it. If a factory cannot produce documentation, we tell you rather than passing the risk along. Compliance paperwork is the least glamorous part of sourcing and the most expensive part to get wrong.

Sourcing child-resistant packaging? Book a free call and we will review what your supplier is actually offering.

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The EU Ended Duty-Free Small Parcels. What It Means for Small Brands

Published October 2026 · 3 min read

For years, goods worth less than €150 entered the EU without customs duty. That is what made shipping single parcels straight from China so cheap. Since 1 July 2026 that is over.

What Changed

The EU now charges a temporary flat customs duty of €3 per item on low-value consignments up to €150 from outside the EU, including when the IOSS VAT scheme is used. On top of that, an EU handling fee for small parcels is due by 1 November 2026. The Commission sets the amount, widely reported as €2 but not yet final, and some member states add national charges.

Who Is Affected

Mainly direct-to-consumer shipping: brands that dropship from China, or send every customer order as a separate parcel. Bulk shipments that clear customs normally are not affected, they already pay regular duty.

Why Bulk Import Got More Attractive

Per-parcel charges hit cheap items hardest. €3 on a €10 product is 30%. Shipping in bulk to a warehouse in the EU and fulfilling locally spreads customs costs across the whole shipment and usually means faster delivery for your customers. The flat €3 is meant to be temporary: once the EU Customs Data Hub is running, planned from 2028, normal duty rates will apply to all imports.

How We Help

We consolidate production into bulk shipments, set the correct HS codes and give you a landed cost per unit that includes duty, so you can compare both routes on real numbers.

Still shipping single parcels from China? Book a free call and we will run the numbers for bulk.