A year into Trump tariffs, Chinese factories and ports are buzzing with activity
HUZHOU, CHINA – JANUARY 27: An employee works on the beverage production line to meet the Spring Festival market demand at Leyuan Health Technology (Huzhou) Co., Ltd. in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, on January 27, 2026.
Wang Shucheng | Visual China Group | Getty Images
A year after U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs spooked exporters and customers, Chinese factories and ports are bustling with activity ahead of the Lunar New Year, even raising freight rates.
Factory activity in China generally picks up at the beginning of the year; manufacturers are racing to fulfill orders and ship goods before the country goes into an extended holiday for Chinese New Year. This year’s pre-holiday rush looks as intense as ever, despite Trump tariffs.
Renaud Anjoran, founder and CEO of Agilian Technology, a Guangdong-based electronics manufacturer, said his factory was running at nearly full capacity after a year of stop-start tariff threats: “We’re very busy.”
“We’re back to a situation where there are no tariffs. American customers don’t think about it [buying from] elsewhere,” Anjoran said, adding that some customers had to pay additional costs to have goods produced and shipped before the holidays.
Its factory in the city of Dongguan ships more than half of its products to the United States, keeping exports at the levels they were before Trump imposed tariffs last year.
“Factories saw orders, production and earnings rise ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday,” according to China Beige Book, which tracks economic data for the world’s second-largest economy.
The research firm estimates that industrial production increased in January compared to the previous year, with both domestic and export orders “increasing sharply on a year-on-year and month-on-month basis.” Official readings for January and February’s output will be out in March.
Major ports in China handled 40% more containers in the week ending Feb. 1 than a year earlier, according to a team of shipping and logistics analysts at HSBC Bank. This marks the fastest annual growth in more than 12 months and is well above average weekly growth of around 10% in 2025.
Take the ports in Ningbo, one of China’s most critical shipping hubs: “Terminals are operating above capacity, individual ships are overbooked by more than 20%, and container arrivals have been suspended,” said Jay Guo, dean of the Ningbo China Supply Chain Innovation Institute.
Unmanned trucks transport containers at Dapukou Container Terminal at Zhoushan Port in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China, on December 9, 2025.
Nurfoto | Nurfoto | Getty Images
Increasing transportation costs
Stating that severe traffic congestion increased trucking rates by 80%, Guo stated that many factories and transportation companies will stop their operations as of Friday and restart next Thursday.
“CNY-focused advisories for shippers in Europe, North America and Asia report a clear pre-holiday advance in bookings from China,” said global supply chain and logistics expert Wolfgang Lehmacher.
However, the increase was also due in part to low base effects from the timing of the Lunar New Year, which was mid-February this year compared to late January 2025.
The increase in activity caused by front-loading before the holiday pushed freight prices up. The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index, a key benchmark for container freight rates from Shanghai to major global destinations, was fluctuating between 1,400 and 1,656 in early January, compared to 1,337 to 1,568, the average level of the last 15 years, according to HSBC’s freight tracking report published on Monday.
Interest rates peaked three weeks earlier than the historical model suggests, signaling that pre-holiday bootstrapping has been brought forward this year, HSBC analysts said in a note.
The HSBC freight report showed large container shipments to the US remained above levels for much of January and February for the same period in 2024 and 2025.
Air freight rates on routes to the US and Europe were higher than a year ago. The Baltic Exchange’s Shanghai Pudong outgoing index increased by 5.3% in the week ending February 2 compared to the previous week.
Companies also continue to develop new products as tariff tensions ease. to follow someone Following a high-level meeting in October, China signed a one-year trade truce with Washington that kept tariffs on its goods destined for the United States at a lower level.
While China reduced its direct shipments to the United States for most of 2025, it increased its exports to alternative markets, including Southeast Asian and European countries.
De-risking, not unbundling
The excitement in Chinese factories comes as companies look to diversify their supply chains. Many multinational firms are accelerating “China plus one” sourcing strategies in Southeast Asia and nearshoring in markets such as Mexico and parts of Europe, but they continue to maintain significant manufacturing and sourcing in China, Lehmacher said.
It’s no surprise that factory floors in China are buzzing with customers from around the world placing orders for the next production cycle, says Shanghai-based senior business partner Cameron Johnson. consulting firm Tidalwave Solutions told CNBC after visiting several factories in southern China last month.
Automotive, consumer and sporting goods manufacturers in southern China are “pretty busy” as they work through backlogs and field requests from foreign buyers, including some from the United States, Johnson said.
They waited as long as they could for the uncertainty to end, but now they must figure out how to move forward.
cameron johnson
Senior partner, Tidalwave Solutions
The visits come after a tumultuous year for Trump’s sweeping tariffs, which led to a wave of panic buying and sudden freezes, as companies grappled with trade uncertainty and played a stop-start game with orders.
Johnson said business owners “waited as long as they could for the uncertainty to end, but now they have to figure out how to move forward.”
American customers’ interest in developing new products has picked up significantly since then, Anjoran said. “Many people had new products in mind but froze projects due to uncertainty,” he said. “Things look relatively stable now.”
— CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng contributed to the report.
