Lunar New Year 2027 in Taiwan: how long do fastener factories actually stop?
The government's 2027 calendar puts the Lunar New Year break at Thursday, February 4 to Wednesday, February 10. That's five weekdays off. In past years when the break fell in February, Taiwan's fastener output index fell that month by roughly the share of working days lost. That can't time any single plant, but it doesn't look like an industry-wide two-to-three-week stop. Here is the calendar, what the law lets a factory change, and how to plan an order around it.
The short version
- On the official 2027 calendar, the Lunar New Year break runs February 4 to 10: seven days in a row, five of them weekdays. February 2027 has 15 working days.
- Private factories follow the Labor Standards Act. They get the same 16 national holidays, but when a holiday falls on a worker's regular day off or rest day, the replacement day is agreed between employer and workers, and a holiday can be swapped for a workday with each worker's consent. Your supplier's dates can differ from the government's.
- In the six years since 2018 when Lunar New Year's Day fell in February, the fastener industry's February output index ran 24% to 31% below the average of January and March. The government calendar had 24% to 35% fewer working days in those Februarys. Across the industry, output fell by about the share of working days lost. That can't show what any one plant does.
- Ask each supplier for its own 2027 company calendar in writing, and its last production and loading dates before the break.
If your lead-time plan pencils in two or three weeks of closure for Lunar New Year, that may be right for some plants. It isn't what Taiwan's statistics show for the fastener industry as a whole. This note looks at three things: the official 2027 calendar, the rules that let a Taiwan factory's calendar differ from it, and what the production data says about past breaks. Then it works through one order, from start date to finish.
The 2027 calendar
The Directorate-General of Personnel Administration (行政院人事行政總處) publishes the government office calendar each year, including as open data. The 2027 file lists 121 days off and 244 working days, against 245 working days in 2026. These are the 2027 holidays that fall on or move to a weekday:
| Holiday | Date | Days off on the calendar |
|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day | Fri, Jan 1 | Jan 1 to 3 |
| Lunar New Year | Eve is Fri, Feb 5; New Year's Day is Sat, Feb 6 | Thu, Feb 4 to Wed, Feb 10. Feb 9 and 10 replace the two holidays that fall on the weekend. |
| Peace Memorial Day | Sun, Feb 28 | Mon, Mar 1 off instead |
| Children's Day and Tomb Sweeping Day | Sun, Apr 4 and Mon, Apr 5 | Sat, Apr 3 to Tue, Apr 6 |
| Labor Day | Sat, May 1 | Fri, Apr 30 off instead |
| Dragon Boat Festival | Wed, Jun 9 | Jun 9 |
| Mid-Autumn Festival | Wed, Sep 15 | Sep 15 |
| Confucius' Birthday / Teachers' Day | Tue, Sep 28 | Sep 28 |
| National Day | Sun, Oct 10 | Oct 9 to 11 (Mon, Oct 11 off instead) |
| Taiwan Retrocession Day | Mon, Oct 25 | Oct 23 to 25 |
| Constitution Day | Sat, Dec 25 | Fri, Dec 24 off instead |
| New Year's Day 2028 | Sat, Jan 1, 2028 | Fri, Dec 31 off instead |
Four of those holidays are new since 2025. The Enforcement Act for Memorial Days and Festivals (紀念日及節日實施條例), promulgated on May 28, 2025, added Confucius' Birthday on September 28, Taiwan Retrocession Day on October 25, Constitution Day on December 25 and a fifth Lunar New Year day, the day before New Year's Eve. It also made Labor Day a holiday for everyone, not only for workers. If your planning sheet was built before mid-2025, it is probably missing four days off.
The Lunar New Year rule is fixed in Article 6 of that Act: five days off, from the day before New Year's Eve through the third day of the new year. Article 8 says a holiday that falls on a regular day off (例假日) gets a replacement day. In 2027 the New Year's Day itself and the second day fall on a Saturday and Sunday, so the government calendar adds Tuesday and Wednesday, February 9 and 10.
Why your supplier's calendar may differ
That calendar binds government offices. A factory follows the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), and the overlap is large but not total.
Article 37 of the Act gives workers the holidays the Ministry of the Interior's rules say are days off, which since 2025 means the Act above. The Ministry of Labor counts these as 16 national holidays a year. Two details leave room for a supplier's dates to move:
- Replacement days are agreed, not fixed. When a holiday falls on a worker's regular day off or rest day, the worker gets a replacement day, but the Enforcement Rules (Article 23-1) say the employer and workers agree on when. Labor Day on Saturday, May 1, 2027 is the clearest case. The government takes Friday, April 30. A factory could set a different day.
- Holidays can be swapped. The Ministry of Labor says employer and worker may exchange a national holiday for a working day, but only with the worker's own consent and with the dates specified. A swap moves the holiday; it doesn't add days off or turn a worker's rest day into a normal workday. Where a holiday hasn't been swapped and a worker agrees to work it, the employer has to pay double wages for that day (Article 39).
Shift patterns matter too. A plant that runs six days, or runs heat treatment around the clock, has different rest days from an office, so its replacement days fall differently. That's why the one document worth asking for is the supplier's own 2027 calendar (公司行事曆), not the government one.
What the production data shows
The calendar says what the days off are. It doesn't say whether a plant comes back on the first working day or a week later. For that we went to the Ministry of Economic Affairs' monthly industrial production index, which has a line for screw, nut and rivet manufacturing (螺絲、螺帽及鉚釘製造業, 2021 = 100). We compared February with the average of January and March in each year since 2018 when Lunar New Year's Day fell in February (in 2022 the break started on January 29 and ran into February), and set that next to the drop in working days on the government calendar for the same months.
| Year | Working days Jan / Feb / Mar | Feb working days vs average of Jan and Mar | Feb output index vs average of Jan and Mar |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 22 / 15 / 23 | −33% | −31% |
| 2019 | 23 / 15 / 20 | −30% | −29% |
| 2021 | 20 / 16 / 22 | −24% | −24% |
| 2022 | 21 / 15 / 23 | −32% | −29% |
| 2024 | 22 / 16 / 21 | −26% | −30% |
| 2026 | 21 / 14 / 22 | −35% | −29% |
The two columns move together. In four of the six years output fell somewhat less than working days did, in 2021 the two were nearly identical, and in 2024 output fell about four points more. If most plants stayed shut for two extra weeks without catching up, February output would sit well below the working-day line most years. It doesn't.
So how long do the factories stop? The data can't measure that plant by plant. For the industry as a whole, the February drop was broadly similar to the cut in working days on the government calendar. Here's what that does and doesn't tell you.
- Known: across the industry, the February output index in those years fell by roughly the share of working days lost on the official calendar. The comparison mixes in month length, other holidays and make-up workdays, so it doesn't isolate the New Year effect.
- Inferred: long shutdowns with no catch-up are probably not the norm for the industry. But longer breaks offset by overtime, or by plants that run through, would produce the same monthly total. The comparison also ignores month length, other holidays and changes in capacity use.
- Unknown: what any single supplier does. The index is an industry total. A small plant that closes for two weeks and a large one that runs through can average out to the same number.
What this means for a 2027 order
Take a hypothetical order that needs 30 working days of production and starts on Monday, January 11, 2027. On the government calendar it reaches day 18 on Wednesday, February 3, stops for the break, and resumes on Thursday, February 11. The last of the 30 days falls on Friday, February 26. Without the break it would have finished on Friday, February 19. The break costs this order one calendar week, because five working days are lost.
Two things push a real order further than that sketch.
The first is any outside processing. If wire drawing, heat treatment or plating is done by other companies, each keeps its own calendar; our Section 232 note sketches how long that chain can be, though yours may be shorter. Ask whether those processors close on the same days as the main plant.
The second is shipping. If you want goods to sail before the break, they still need packing, inspection, trucking to the port and the forwarder's cargo and document cut-offs. We don't have official data on how carriers set cut-offs around the holiday. Ask your forwarder for the last 2027 sailing that suits you, then count back from it.
What to ask your supplier now
- Your 2027 company calendar, including replacement days and any swapped holidays.
- The last production day and the last dispatch day before your own shutdown.
- The first full production day after the break.
- Whether your outside processors (wire drawing, heat treatment, plating) close on the same dates.
- Which other 2027 dates differ from the government calendar, especially April 30, December 24 and December 31.
Back to the two or three weeks a lead-time plan might allow. For Taiwan's fastener industry as a whole, the numbers fit the official break, plus whatever your own supplier and its subcontractors add. That second part is the one to get in writing before January.
Need the dates confirmed on site?
We contact or visit your Taiwan supplier in Chinese, ask for its 2027 production calendar and those of its outside processors, and check order status before and after the break. You get what we obtain in English, with photos where access allows.
Send a taskCalendars and figures are as we read them on October 11, 2026. The production index is revised from time to time. This is a planning guide for buyers, not legal or labor advice.
Sources
- Government office calendar (中華民國政府行政機關辦公日曆表), 2017 to 2027 files, Directorate-General of Personnel Administration, via data.gov.tw; 2027 calendar announced May 21, 2026
- Executive Yuan approves the 2027 government office calendar, Directorate-General of Personnel Administration press release, May 21, 2026
- Government office calendar page, Directorate-General of Personnel Administration
- Enforcement Act for Memorial Days and Festivals (紀念日及節日實施條例), Articles 4, 6 and 8, promulgated May 28, 2025
- Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), Articles 37 and 39
- Enforcement Rules of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法施行細則), Article 23-1
- National holidays and replacement days (國定假日及補假), Ministry of Labor, updated May 6, 2026
- Industrial production index (工業生產指數), screw, nut and rivet manufacturing (2591), Ministry of Economic Affairs, data to June 2026