A year into Trump tariffs, Chinese factories and ports are buzzing with activity

After a year of tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump that rattled exporters and customers, Chinese factories and ports are bustling with activity ahead of the Lunar New Year – even pushing up freight rates.

Chinese factory activity typically spikes at the start of the year as manufacturers race to fulfill orders and ship goods before the country enters an extended Chinese New Year holiday. This year’s pre-holiday rush looks busier than ever despite Trump’s tariffs.

“We are very busy,” said Reno Anjoran, founder and CEO of Agelian Technology, a Guangdong-based electronics manufacturer, whose factory was operating almost at full capacity after a year of tariff threats.

“We’re back to a situation where tariffs don’t seem to exist. American customers aren’t thinking about that [buying from] “Other places,” Anjoran said, adding that some customers had to pay additional costs to have the goods manufactured and shipped before the holiday.

Its factory in the city of Dongguan ships more than half of its products to the United States, keeping exports at levels seen before Trump imposed tariffs last year.

“Factories saw a jump in orders, production and profits ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday,” according to China Page, which tracks economic data from the world’s second-largest economy.

The research firm estimates that in January, industrial production jumped compared to a year ago, with domestic demand and export orders accelerating sharply on a year-on-year and monthly basis. The official production readout for January and February will be released in March.

China’s major ports handled 40% more containers during the week ending February 1 than a year earlier, according to a team of transport and logistics analysts at HSBC. This represents the fastest year-on-year growth in more than 12 months and is well above the average weekly growth of around 10% in 2025.

Take the ports of Ningbo, one of China’s most important maritime hubs: terminals are operating “beyond capacity, with the number of individual vessels increasing by more than 20%, and container gateways have been suspended,” said Jay Guo, dean of the Ningbo China Institute for Supply Chain Innovation.

Companies are also moving forward with developing new products as tariff tensions ease. Follow a High-level meeting in OctoberChina obtained a one-year trade truce with Washington that kept tariffs on its goods to the United States at a lower level.

For most of 2025, China has It reduced its direct shipments to America With increasing exports to alternative markets including Southeast Asian and European countries.