Press Room

NEOLINK Announcement – China Extends New Years Holiday to February 2nd to contain Coronavirus – 28.1.20

Monday 28^th of January 2020

Good Morning Valued Clients,

Amidst the Coronavirus outbreak; The State Council for the Peoples republic of China has announced it has extended the Lunar New Year Holiday until the February 2^nd by one week. (Announcement Attached)

In addition to the above, The Shanghai Municipal government has also announced that it will extend the holiday even further than the rest of China to the 9^th of February. This move has been expected as the government and healthcare authorities double down on efforts to contain the virus outbreak by restricting public movement as much as possible.

As such this means that a number of factory and office employees will not be back to work as anticipated, which I am sure is being communicated to you by your suppliers directly.

So what impact does this have on shipping?:

• Fewer staff will be on board to complete orders and will result in Air/Sea handling delays
• Vessel bookings will be rolled onto further weeks
• China Export Customs will take longer to process shipments
• Delays across all aspects of the supply chain from trucking to vessel/flight departures

What can NEOLINK and you do?:

• Forward plan ahead as much as possible
• If you have not done so already; send through any outstanding orders to us that we might not be aware of for February
• Forward on this communication/announcement to your own customers that might be impacted
• Anticipate delays and manage stock/orders accordingly by bringing forward orders that might have been planned for the end of February
• NEOLINK to work with your suppliers to make bookings now to ensure we can work to secure space where available

Our team will proactively be in contact to discuss the impact and try to ensure we plan to manage this situation as best as we can.

Ultimately these delays are out of everyone’s control and we can try to limit the impact on your business as much as possible.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call any member of the team.

Best regards,

NEOLINK Marketing Team