1. Confirm You Are Talking To The Producer
Ask who owns the production line and who holds the export licence. When those sit in two different companies, every specification question travels through an intermediary and every document has an extra handover. Our factory is in Tianjin, has more than twenty years of professional production experience, and holds independent export qualifications, with exports accounting for around 80% of total production.
2. Fix The Specification In Writing
Do not accept "99% caustic soda" as a specification. Get the four numbers: NaOH, Na2CO3, NaCl and Fe2O3, with the direction of each limit stated. Ask which national or international standard the product is made to. Ours is GB 209-2006 industrial grade.
3. Decide On Inspection Before You Order
Export products are checked by quality inspection agencies such as SGS, CIQ and INTERTEK. Decide which agency you want, and at which point — during production, before loading, or at loading — and get it into the schedule. An inspection agreed after the goods are packed is much harder to arrange and often delays the vessel.
4. Get The Packaging Right For Your Site
25 kg bags or jumbo bags. Palletised or floor stacked. Your own printed artwork or the standard bag. These are decided at order stage, not afterwards, and they change the tonnage that fits in a container.
5. Plan The Lead Time Honestly
Flakes ship within 7 to 10 days after order confirmation and pearls within 15 to 20 days. Add the ocean leg, the inspection window and any national holiday to get a real arrival date. A supplier who promises everything in seven days regardless of product and volume is guessing.
6. Confirm The Dangerous Goods Paperwork
Sodium hydroxide solid is UN 1823, class 8. Bags must be marked, and the documentation must match. Tell your supplier which documents your customs authority requires before you place the order, not after the bill of lading is issued.
7. Ask How Cargo Will Be Routed
Shipping is by sea or by railway depending on availability to your destination. For inland destinations the rail option can be significantly faster, so give the delivery point rather than just the nearest port.
8. Look At Capacity, Not Just Price
A quotation is easy. Loading around 80 containers a month, every month, is the part that tells you whether a supplier can carry your volume when the market tightens.
A Short Enquiry That Gets A Real Answer
Send these eight lines and any serious producer can quote in one reply: product form, purity required, monthly or one off quantity, packaging, labelling, destination port or inland point, inspection requirement, required delivery date. Our enquiry checklist is a one page version of exactly that.
