(Yicai) Feb. 24 -- A manufacturing firm in China’s eastern Zhejiang province took a shorter Chinese New Year holiday than usual this year in order to cope with the rush orders brought by the reshoring of overseas business from multinational clients. 
The company resumed production on Feb. 22, two days before the end of the statutory Chinese New Year holiday, the head of the Chinese manufacturer surnamed Li told Yicai.

Li told Yicai that against the backdrop of escalating geopolitical conflicts and rising tariff barriers, one of his multinational corporate clients allocated half of its orders for a new product to his factory earlier last year, while awarding the other half to suppliers in India and Poland.

However, after the Indian supplier was unable to make qualified products and the Polish peer encountered headwinds in research and development of the new product, the multinational had to transfer the entire order to Li’s factory at the end of last year, said Li.

“Even with the newly-imposed US tariffs and international logistics costs included, China-made products still have lower costs and more reliable order fulfillment capabilities than those from other countries,” Li said.

Official data proved Li’s point, China’s foreign trade value expanded 3.8 percent to record CNY45.47 trillion (USD6.59 trillion) last year from 2024, continuing to rank first globally, according to data from the General Administration of Customs. Exports grew 6.1 percent, and imports rose 0.5 percent.

The Zhejiang manufacturer experienced a decline in orders in the first half of last year, affected by tariff policies. However, as new orders were finalized in the fourth quarter, including the one from the above multinational client, the factory is now short on workers. “I need to hire 30 to 50 more workers after the Chinese New Year holiday,” Li noted.

With the rebound in orders in the fourth quarter of last year, the demand shortfall caused by the order decline in the first half of 2025 was rapidly offset, leaving full-year 2025 orders largely unchanged from 2024. With healthy order visibility, the company is poised to achieve stronger profit growth in 2026 than in previous years, Li predicted.
However, he also noted that the company is still running at a loss on its books due to tens of millions of yuan invested in new equipment and new product development for the fresh orders. 

In addition, as the production and payment cycle in the manufacturing industry usually lasts nearly half a year, the company expects to remain under relatively heavy cash flow pressure for some time to come, added Li.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione