Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year is a yearly festival that is celebrated in varying forms across Asia – causing the largest annual mass human migration in the world! Beginning on 5th February this year, it will see almost all factories in the region close for over a week, with full productivity not resuming for almost a month.
This is easily the biggest holiday in the logistics calendar and prior to New Year, we see the number of containers raise 50% as people prepare their cargo. It also results in a busy start to the year as logistics companies, carriers and shippers deal with this demand and the subsequent backlogs once normal working resumes. Read more about it in our dedicated Chinese New Year blog.
Carnival
Carnival is a festive season that occurs before Lent, involving public celebrations, parades and street parties. While it actually occurs in many countries around the world, the biggest and most famous Carnival celebration is in Brazil – where, like Chinese New Year, much of the country comes to a standstill for a week of festivities. This year it kicks off on 1st until 6th March.
Brazil is the largest economy in Latin America and 8th largest in the world – so when the country’s production slows the world takes notice!
It also means you have two of the world’s largest economies (Brazil and China) holding big holidays within weeks of each other. So it’s important to be aware of when these dates crossover in order to plan appropriately.
Holiday season
It may seem like a world away, but the holiday season will come around quickly! For those of us in the northern hemisphere our summer months are July and August; but of course on the southern hemisphere summer is already here. Depending on where you’re shipping your cargo from or to, you could be affected by the summer season as workers head off on their holidays.
The holiday season also sees heightened demand for certain commodities and produce – from food to garden furniture – so if you’re shipping anything seasonal it’s probably time to start planning for it now, well enough in advance that you’ll get your cargo when you need it most.
Black Friday / Cyber Monday
Black Friday and its recent partner, Cyber Monday, are huge dates on the consumer calendar. Starting in the United States – where Black Friday falls on November 29th following Thanksgiving – it has now spread across the globe from the UK to Mexico as other countries look to get a slice of the vast amounts of money that will be spent over the course of these two days.
Americans alone spent $5bn in 24 hours on Black Friday in 2018, while the UK spent over £7bn across the two days. In order to accommodate this huge demand, you’ll see many companies getting their cargo prepared as early as September.
Christmas / New Year
Before you know it, you will have made it through another year and the busy time of Christmas and New Year will be here. Add to this all the people starting to take holidays as well as more severe weather and it can get pretty stressful and disruptive – so it’s important to plan for this period well in advance.
You will have noticed the words ‘planning’ and ‘awareness’ popping up a lot in this blog – they’re both key to avoiding delays to your cargo during peak periods; as well as strong relationships with your shippers, carriers and freight forwarders like us!
In the coming weeks we’ll have separate blogs on those subjects, but for now get the diary out and plot these key periods in your calendar.
Don’t forget you can contact Twill today to book your cargo throughout the year – www.twill.net.
