How to select qualified iron casting suppliers, iron foundries and casting companies in China?

As for a new buyer and purchaser, you may not understand what kinds of iron casting suppliers are suitable for your products. You may just search many suppliers from internet and send RFQ to them, and find the lowest one to deal with them. I think this is not a wise way to select suppliers. Why I say so? There is an old Chinese saying “Cheap things are not good.”. So, please do not take price as the only yard for suppliers. You should learn more about the requirements of your products and the production process for them. 

As for your products, you should know its technical requirements, such as the machining tolerance, surface and inside quality for rough casting, its application, painting, weights, etc. So, if you find that the suppliers can not understand or ignore these requirements, you should explain or remind them. You can know that which supplier is more careful and serious to your inquiry. And the quotations are not useful if the suppliers can not meet the requirements for your products. As for the iron castings, the weights are the base of prices. In our Dandong Foundry, we always take the weights as the base of quotations. So, you should know the rough casting weights and machined weights. Sometimes, it is difficult to get the rough casting weights before making the samples, so the machined weights will become very important. The suppliers should be able to estimate the rough casting weights according to machined weights. Therefore, as buyer, you should check if the suppliers have known the weights, and if they have misunderstood the machined weights as the rough casting weights. At least, you should notice them that the weights you provided are machined or rough weights in case of unnecessary misunderstanding in the future. 

After you get several good quotations, how do you select best supplier from them? As buyer, you always want the suppliers the good quality, best prices and quick delivery. However, it is difficult to check the quality and delivery at the beginning except of prices. Some buyers hope to get these information by the complex questionnaire, I do not deny the importance for questionnaire, I just think the questionnaire is not the best way to learn about these information. Of course, a site visit will be the best way to inspect the capability of the suppliers, however, the visiting cost is too high for overseas buyers.  

I suggest you could inspect one supplier by the following methods. Firstly, you could check their products to find out if they have made the similar products before. If they did, then they will be more familiar with your products. This is very important. Secondly, you could check their workshops and equipments from internet. From the photos and equipment list, you should learn more about their capability. Of course, you must learn more about the suitable casting process and machining process for your products, otherwise, you will still be not able to see important information. As for the iron castings, you should know what casting process is suitable for your products, such as green sand, resin sand, shell molding, automatic molding, lost wax casting etc. You can compare the quotations from several suppliers, then you will find out which casting process is most suitable for your products. In addition, the suppliers should have necessary inspection devices. Thirdly, you could start the cooperation from small orders, so you could increase your order volume little by little. This way could reduce your possible loss as lower as possible. It is a misunderstanding that only the largest factory is the most suitable for you. Some small factories can also make very good products. Each factory has its advantage.  

As for the trading companies, they are also your options. Some good trading companies can also supply good iron castings. However, it should not need my repeat, their prices will be higher. As for some machining factories, or called machining workshops, they can also supply machined iron castings to you. The machining workshops will purchase the rough castings from local foundries. Their machining capability will be better, but their prices are little higher than foundries. As for a professional purchaser, you could know the difference between iron foundries, machining workshops and trading companies. 

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