Korean holidays that will move your delivery date

A Korean factory quoting thirty days in early January and thirty days in early September is quoting two different things. Two lunar holidays and one summer shutdown remove more working time from the Korean calendar than most foreign buyers plan for, and they are the most common reason a first order lands late.

The three that matter

Seollal — Lunar New Year

설날 follows the lunar calendar, so it moves: late January or somewhere in February. The public holiday is three days, but that is not the disruption. Staff travel to family across the country, factories commonly extend the break, and the week either side runs at reduced capacity. Plan for a working week lost, sometimes more.

Chuseok — the autumn harvest holiday

추석 also moves, usually falling in September or early October, and behaves much like Seollal: three official days, a practical shutdown that is longer, and a national travel crush. Its position is worse for many buyers, because it lands directly in the window when orders for the year-end retail season need to ship.

The summer shutdown

Late July into early August many Korean manufacturers close for a week — often the same week across an entire industry. This one is not a public holiday and appears on no calendar, which is exactly why it catches people out. Ask your supplier directly which week they close; they will know months ahead.

The disruption is wider than the factory

Even where your manufacturer keeps working, the chain around it does not. Raw material suppliers close. Packaging and printing companies — often small operations — close longer. Freight forwarders run skeleton staff, port and customs processing slows, and container space tightens sharply in the days before a holiday as everyone tries to ship ahead of it.

The practical consequence is that a delay does not compress afterwards. Everyone returns to a backlog at once, and the queue you join is longer than the one you left.

Planning around them

• Ask for the holiday calendar in writing at quotation stage, including the summer shutdown week, and put the dates in the schedule you both agree.
• Do not schedule a first production run across a holiday. First runs generate problems that need conversation, and nobody is there to have it.
• Book freight early for pre-holiday sailings. Space and rates both move against you in the fortnight beforehand.
• Expect slow correspondence, and do not read it as a warning sign. A supplier who stops replying during Chuseok is on holiday, not avoiding you.

If a supplier does go quiet well beyond a holiday and stops answering entirely, that is a different problem — the guide on a supplier that closes mid-contract covers what to check and in what order.