Spring Festival is the one production break every Chinese caravan factory observes, and the order cut-off in front of it is earlier than most first-time importers expect. The deadline is not the holiday itself, but the date your deposit and frozen specification must reach the factory to hold a build slot and a shipping window beyond the break. If you are planning first-quarter stock for a southern-hemisphere summer, that date is now.

Two queues stop at the same time

Production halts when the factory closes, but it restarts slowly. Workers travel home for the holiday and return over the days that follow, so the first week after reopening is rarely a full week of output. A build that looked "almost finished" in January can sit until the line is staffed again and the sub-suppliers that feed it have reopened.

Shipping queues at the same moment. Importers who want units before the break all target the same sailings, and everyone who misses them joins the post-holiday backlog. Caravans make this sharper than most cargo: a mid-size off-road caravan normally ships as a single unit on a 40ft flat rack, so you are chasing specialised equipment rather than space in a box container. A booking confirmation is not the same thing as a released flat rack.

The holiday follows the lunar calendar and falls in late January or February, so confirm exact dates each year rather than planning from last season.

Four things to fix before the break

• A frozen specification. Door side, trailer plug type, mains voltage, branding and the option list should be agreed and signed before the design office empties. Changes requested during the shutdown wait for the new year and re-enter the queue behind everything already booked.
• A delivery window that names the holiday. A lead time quoted in weeks means little unless it starts on the date your deposit is received and the shutdown is written in as an excluded period. The published range of off-road caravans from China shows the models and build options that carry this level of detail.
• Stated price validity. Factories quote against component prices at the time of quotation. Ask how long the unit price holds and what would justify a re-issue; a quote that expires over the break is a normal commercial event, but you need the term in writing to reprice your own retail offer.
• Deposit and slot, confirmed in writing. Production capacity is allocated rather than queued on goodwill. If you want a position in the first block after reopening, treat the pre-break deposit as the cost of holding that position.

Book the shipping window, not just the build

Ask for the loading date, not only the sailing date, and confirm which equipment is being reserved for you. If units will be ready before the break, moving them out early is usually cheaper than joining the backlog; if they will not be, agree the sailing you are targeting after reopening and write a latest-ship date into the order. A deferred shipment moves your whole selling season.

Bridge the gap in your own stock

Count cover in weeks, not units: knowing how many weeks the current stock will last lets you choose between shipping earlier, splitting the order, or holding units for the peak and reordering on a rolling basis. The quiet weeks are also the right time to plan pre-delivery inspection capacity and the spare-parts shelf, so arrivals do not sit unpacked through the season.

LZM manufactures off-road caravans in China for export to Australia, New Zealand and the United States, and documents weight, layout and equipment by model — including the 16ft hard-top family off-road caravan — so importers can scope a build before committing a deposit.

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