The following is an illustrative example of a planning pattern we work through with electronics importers, not a specific named client case.
Electronics sourcing from China concentrates around two annual capacity crunches — the run-up to Golden Week in early October and the weeks before Chinese New Year — and an importer ordering components or finished goods on a regular replenishment cycle has to plan bookings against both, every year, rather than treating either as a one-off surprise.
The pattern that works is backward-planning from the factory's own production shutdown dates (which most factories publish or confirm well ahead of both holidays) rather than from the importer's own ideal delivery date — cargo-ready dates get pulled earlier, and booking commitments get made earlier, specifically to clear the port before carrier capacity tightens rather than competing for space during the crunch itself.
For lithium-battery-containing electronics specifically, the UN38.3 and carrier-specific battery documentation needs to be confirmed as part of this same advance planning, since a documentation gap discovered during an already-tight capacity period compounds the delay rather than just adding a separate, smaller one.
The outcome this approach is built around: a predictable delivery cadence through the two periods of the year when most shippers are scrambling for space, at the cost of ordering and committing to freight earlier than the comfortable last-minute default.