Chinese companies are starting to come back online this week.
At least, some of them.
Many factories will be closed until the 24th, some even longer. Afterwards manufacturers will need several weeks to get back to full production capacity as they await the return of their workers. At the beginning of the holiday, an estimated 250 million workers travelled from the East Coast, where much of China’s industrial base lies, to their home cities in the inland provinces. Many of these workers take a month to come back.
One factory we work with told us they only had 25% of their workers back so far. Others we’ve contacted are still closed on the 24th.
What this means is that most factories won’t be back to full scale production until early March.
That’s one heckuva holiday. Here in the States we think our Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays are a big deal. Imagine getting several weeks off every year for one holiday, with pay. That doesn’t include their May and October holiday, both which used to be one week long.
The bummer from our side is that China shuts manufacturing down for the world while we wait for their party to end.