Little “SECRETS” in the STEEL FIELD
Our job is to help our clients minimize risks.
1 How to check the basic background of steel suppliers in China?
2 Can the quality be guaranteed by a pre-shipment inspection?
3 Are big steel manufacturers fit for you?
4 Is it possible to find steel manufacturers at the Canton Fair?
5 Want to know more?
1 How to check the basic background of steel suppliers in China?
Our clients often received emails from steel "manufacturers" or "groups" in China. When they got some suppliers SOUND good, they would ask us to check them, because they are always not sure how to judge whether a steel supplier is a real manufacturer, or just a middleman claiming itself "manufacturer"?
Now, we'd like to share with you a simple way to check the basic information of companies/factories in China Mainland: Maybe it's not the best way, BUT we can at least find out some companies TOO NEW or TOO SMALL, or FUNDLESS.
Here is the way :
1.) First, we can check out the Chinese name of this company through the information in the salesman's e-mail (like: company's English name, company website or the tel., etc.).
2.) And then, by entering the company's Chinese name on the websites like "tianyancha.com", we can find all the information we need :
- Owner's name of the company;
- Company address;
- Established date;
- Registered capacity of the company;
- Email box;
- Their product range;
- And even the "risk", etc.
Of course, if we want more important details, we need to pay to be the site's member. But, even if we are non-members, we still can get some information very useful.
For example :
In 2022, we checked a company for one of our clients.
From the salesman's e-mail and his company website, they showed that it's an enterprise integrated set of industry and trade, with a long history, specialized in steel profiles, has offices in different countries such as USA, UK, Australia, etc. ... All these, really SOUND a good supplier.
BUT, after checking in the "tianyancha.com", we found that it is NOT what the salesman said :
A. It's a new company established in 2020. And, the sole senior management is also the boss, he owns only one company, which means that this company is NEITHER an enterprise that has been established for a long time, NOR a young subsidiary newly established by a parent firm of a long history.
B. We also found one thing very important: Their "the number of insured" is "zero", which means that it's NOT an "enterprise integrated set of industry and trade" as they showed.
C. Contrary to what they presented as "specializing in steel profiles", their business scope covers almost all sorts of products (Not only steel, but also clothes, shoes, machines, articles of daily use, plastics products, electrical appliances, furniture, etc. wholesale for all kinds of products. ), which means they are a middleman, trader or wholesale company.
D. And in the company file, it shows also two Chinese characters which almost all of our clients can understand: "批发"， it means "wholesale".
From the above findings, we can see that this company, who calls himself "powerful group integrated set of industry and trade, with a long history" is just a SMALL and NEW middleman company ONLY.
... ...
We cannot say that all the companies too new, too small or fundless cannot provide quality products and good services, BUT when something unexpected happens, with a high probability they cannot afford the risk.
(PLEASE NOTE: It's just for the steel field. For some products, like fasteners, we prefer to cooperate with an experienced representative, regardless of his company is very new, small and maybe fundless. Why? Please read the #3 essay about "Are big steel manufacturers fit for you?".)
Yes, there are lots of suppliers in China. Our job is to help our clients minimize risks.
2 Can the quality be guaranteed by the pre-shipment inspection?
Before shipment, many suppliers usually arrange an inspection in the factory, or, clients hire a third-party company to do this inspection. Through this kind of inspection, they thought that they could ensure the quality of the products.
But, does this way work? For steel, the answer is "NO".
In fact, steel is a special product. The quality of the steel is checked as good after an inspection before shipment, which does not mean that it will still be good after several months or even years. In contrast, reliable after-sale service is much more important.
For example, one of our clients told us his story: He once bought two containers of painted steel profile.
Before shipment, his supplier and a third-party quality-inspection company checked the products.
After inspection, both his supplier and the third-party company confirmed that the products were OK.
BUT 2 months later, after a heavy rain in the client's country, the client found that the steel they had just received several weeks ago was rusty, the paint coating has come off after being slightly scratched by a metallic object! The worst news was: His ex-supplier didn't willing to compensate!
Obviously, the paint factory hadn't performed a good painting process!
From his story, we noticed that the paint factory which cooperated with his ex-supplier was famous in Tianjin city for cutting corners. Obviously, in order to earn more profits, his ex-supplier chose a paint factory with a bad reputation but a lower paint fee.
Therefore, the most important, is to cooperate with a reliable factory with high quality as well as
reliable after-sales service.
We are very proud that in the past 10 years, no quality problems and no after-sale difficulties from our factories: No exaggeration.
3Can big steel manufacturers be fit for you?
Some clients prefer to choose too big manufacturers. Yes, the quality of big manufacturers can be guaranteed. However, we always suggest to our clients: No matter how large the manufacturer is, we should make sure that the contact person of this manufacturer has the power to make a decision. (VERY IMPORTANT)
If the contact person is a small salesman who has no power to make a decision; or he is a manager who can make a decision, but after knowing our "small" order-QTY, he passes our order to a small salesman. Then, we should think twice.
Because when something unexpected happens (e.g. after-sale problem), many small salesmen neither can decide to compensate nor are willing to report the problem to their boss. Because after reporting to his boss, his annual bonus would be affected.
A story from our client: He once purchased 3 containers of steel profile as a trial order from a top big group. The quality of this group no doubt can be guaranteed. However, it produced "black steel" ONLY, but our client needed paint-coating as surface treatment, which meant the group needed to find a paint factory to do paint-coating.
Even though before shipment, the inspector of this group checked and confirmed that the quality of the painted products was OK. After 1.5 months, when the client received the products, he found that the products were seriously rusted.
The salesman refused to compensate with an excuse: "It's the problem of the paint factory, not ours.", and dared not to report to his supervisor to solve this problem.
There are many examples of this in steel field.
By the way, some manufacturers too big, they don't provide some necessary services:
E.g. Steel tubes are sold in bundles, but there are some pcs of "joint steel pipe" in each bundle. Some factories will pick out these "joint pipes" before shipment, because the "joint pipe" is "second grade". But for factories too big, they normally don't provide this "pick out" service.
Our factories who have cooperated with us for more than 10 years, not only have good strength, thus ensuring the quality (ISO9001, one of "China's top 500 enterprises", "CE" certificate); but also provide us with strong support, thus ensuring reliable after-sales service.
And, as a service company, we consider every detail for our clients, everything is for our clients. Your satisfaction is our TOP PRIORITY.
4 Is it possible to find steel manufacturers at the Canton Fair?
The Answer is "Need to check it by ourselves".
Many clients like to choose suppliers at the Canton fair, because they can find any suppliers and any product. Yes, it's true, we can find many good suppliers and quality products at the Canton fair.
BUT, steel is a special product, with a big possibility, most formal steel manufacturers with a certain scale would not exhibit at the Canton Fair.
The steel suppliers who exhibited there, in a small booth of only a few square meters, are mostly trader or middlemen.
As we all know that steel is a special product, in order to show the brand image of the manufacturer, before the year 2020, it needs at least 200,000RMB to rent a big Exhibition Booth. But many manufacturers don't think that they can get enough returns from the investment of this 200,000RMB.
Now, in 2023. For attracting more suppliers to exhibit at the Canton fair, there is not a too big difference between the rents of a booth of 18 M2 and 7 M2. Therefore, it's possible that steel manufacturers would exhibit at the canton fair. But, to tell whether the supplier is a real manufacturer or just a middleman who claim himself a "manufacturer", we still need to check its "basic company background" like the way in essay #1.
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