Happy New Year Everyone! Last year brought plenty of turmoil and uncertainty to the freight world. Here’s to hoping this year will bring more surety to everyone shipping overseas. Let’s see what’s happening this month in today’s State of Freight!
CNY 2026 – The Year of the Fire Horse!
It may only be January, but Chinese New Year is fast approaching. Running from February 17th to March 3rd, Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year is an annual celebration in China to celebrate the end of winter and the beginning of spring. Each year is marked by a different animal and element. This is the year of the Fire Horse, said to bring breakthroughs, boldness, forward advancements and ambition. The horse is one of the luckiest of the Chinese zodiac animals.
During this 2 week holiday period, China factories and ports either close or greatly reduce capacity. For you, this means there will be nothing producing or shipping during this time. If you are looking to get your goods into the US prior to April or May, plan on shipping out of China in January. The last day to ship out of China for GPI’s factories is February 6th, so now is the time to plan your shipping! Our factories begin resuming normal work hours on March 4th.
CHINA/HK PORTS
Now is the push to get goods out of China and on the water prior to CNY. There are little to no blank sailings being reported and carriers have added additional capacity in anticipation of higher export volumes this month. Vessel pricing remains manageable with little change over last month as tariffs are still playing a big role in lower production orders than in previous years.
*Note: a blank or void sailing is when a carrier cancels a scheduled vessel due to low volumes, port congestion or other market conditions. Blank sailings can also be caused by port congestion or strikes to keep future vessels on track. This forces the shipper to change the intended vessel schedule to a different vessel and schedule, most often resulting in a later sail date.
USA OCEAN PORTS
Import volumes continue to be low this year resulting in clear and uncongested ports. East, West and Gulf ports are not experiencing any delays upon arrival and this trend is expected to continue throughout the first part of the year. This can change at any time depending on tariffs, labor disputes, bad weather, or geopolitical events.
US RAIL UPDATE
GPI continues to see congestion at the west coast rail. Long wait queues of up to 7 days are not unlikely. 2025 was a hard year for the rail with labor disputes, tariffs, and layoffs. During this time of year, the west coast rail, which travels inland, encounters severe winter weather which further impacts transit and dwell times. Factor in an additional week or two if you intend to use the US rail systems at least for the next few months. Delays at the rail are almost always a surety.
Despite the low import volumes and rail delays, January is a good time to ship your goods to the US. Pricing is relatively low and ocean port delays are currently nonexistent. We’ll mark this as a good start to the new year! Happy Shipping!
