<\/p>\n
A global survey of 700 freight forwarding professionals by OntegosCloud reveals that most forwarders lose margin or merely hold ground during the Lunar New Year period \u2013 with delayed decision-making, poor visibility, and misalignment between teams cited more frequently than capacity constraints or carrier behaviour.<\/p>\n
According to the survey, most forwarders approach Chinese New Year (CNY) defensively, focusing on damage limitation rather than growth. Only a small minority say they consistently use the period to gain competitive advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cChinese New Year has quietly become a profit separator,\u201d said Oliver Gritz, founder and CEO of OntegosCloud. \u201cThe market conditions are largely the same for everyone, and it really should be approached as an opportunity. But too many companies survive rather than thrive. What differs is how prepared organisations are to execute under pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
CNY falls on 17 February 2026, but factory closures typically span two to three weeks. The resulting pre-holiday export rush is already pushing container spot rates higher as demand rises, with air freight markets set to spike as the shutdown approaches.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Chinese New Year period remains value-destructive for the industry<\/p>\n
When asked about commercial outcomes during the CNY period, the survey reveals it is value-destructive for most of the industry. Nearly four in ten respondents say their organisations typically lose margin while trying to keep customers satisfied, while a further 35% report merely \u2018holding ground\u2019 without gaining any commercial upside.<\/p>\n
By contrast, only 18% say they outperform less-prepared competitors during the CNY period, and just 9% report turning the disruption into a sustained commercial advantage, underscoring how sharply the period separates a small group of winners from the rest of the market.<\/p>\n
Internal execution factors determine CNY outcomes<\/strong><\/p>\n Contrary to common perception, respondents more frequently cited internal execution factors than external market forces as the primary drivers of Chinese New Year outcomes.<\/p>\n While capacity constraints and carrier behaviour remain significant structural pressures during the CNY lead-in, the survey suggests these forces are broadly experienced across the market and affect most forwarders in similar ways. What differentiates outcomes is how organisations prepare for and execute within those conditions.<\/p>\n By contrast, internal planning and preparation (56%), quality of operational data and visibility (49%), and speed of internal decision-making (44%) emerged as the clearest differentiators in determining how organisations perform through the CNY period.<\/p>\n Most common internal breakdowns<\/strong><\/p>\n In a follow-up question asking respondents to assess the extent to which internal execution issues amplify Chinese New Year-related challenges, with options ranging from \u201csignificantly\u201d and \u201cmoderately\u201d to \u201cslightly\u201d or \u201cnot at all\u201d, more than 83% indicated that execution gaps play a significant or moderate role. The finding reinforces the view that CNY outcomes are shaped less by the disruption itself than by how organisations respond to it once pressure builds.<\/p>\n The most common internal breakdowns during the build-up to CNY were:<\/p>\n \u2022 Delayed or reactive decision-making (52%)<\/p>\n \u2022 Limited real-time visibility into shipments and margins (47%)<\/p>\n \u2022 Poor alignment between operations, pricing, and finance (43%)<\/p>\n \u201cFreight forwarding is a highly profitable business when run properly \u2013 CNY just exposes who\u2019s doing it right,\u201d said Gritz. \u201cDelayed decisions, poor visibility and misaligned teams aren\u2019t exceptional failures. They happen every year, which means they\u2019re solvable.\u201d<\/p>\n Execution Discipline Emerges as a 2026 Priority<\/p>\n Looking ahead, 90% of respondents said execution will be critical or important to managing predictable disruptions like Chinese New Year in the future. The findings suggest that as freight markets remain volatile, companies who invest in planning, visibility, and cross-functional alignment will increasingly separate themselves from peers.<\/p>\n \u201cVolatility is now the baseline,\u201d said Oliver Gritz, CEO of OntegosCloud. \u201cForwarders who embed execution discipline into their operating system will consistently outperform. Those still relying on heroics will see margins erode \u2013 not just at CNY, but at every peak.\u201d <\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" … global survey of 700 freight<\/span> forwarding professionals by OntegosCloud … demand rises, with air freight<\/span> markets set to spike … , and finance (43%) \u00e2\u0080\u009cFreight<\/span> forwarding is a highly profitable … findings suggest that as freight<\/span> markets remain volatile, companies …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
Source: OntegosCloud<\/p>\n