“Made In China” is a label frequently seen on products in every corner of the globe on products ranging from zipper buttons to cars and even to ships.
By leveraging the power of the internet, retailers and wholesalers from all over the world are importing products directly from China, seeking to gain an advantage on the local market by acquiring high-quality products at low costs.
However, a Google search will reveal that there are many manufacturer options to choose from.
Any merchant’s website will be found boasting about highly effective factories, inexpensive prices, and top-notch quality products, looking to sell.
Can it really be that there are many factories in China? Actually, yes, there are quite a few Chinese factories in existence, but not all manufacturers who claim to have factories are actually manufacturers, but rather trading companies.
This gives importers pause and makes them question whether they are purchasing from a manufacturer with factories.
We have put together a short 5 item checklist by which you can verifiably assure if a company you are trading with is actually a production factory.
1.Factory Building
The plant is the show of strength of any low-tech Chinese factories.
While we commonly think of larger plants as a reflection of a strong and formidable production site.
In China, most factories are relatively simple buildings, not high-end production centers. As these are not overly impressive, most companies tend to avoid showing their production facility online.
However, some trading companies will use PS technology, issuing a resemblance of a fake factory to confuse prospective importing partners.
The smaller factories have no departments that deal with quality and product control and deal with various shipment related matters, but often translate to smaller MOQ and lower costs.
Larger manufacturers tend to develop more secure products with a more stable production line, though with the improved quality, the prices tend to be higher.
2. Check the certification
You can check the plant’s certification.
If the enterprise name on the certificate correlates to the enterprise name, it is likelier to be true.
In terms of industrial plugs and sockets, due to the cancellation of 3C certification in China, quite a few sub-par products are floating around.
The reputable manufacturers will not just have a CE certification to their name. They will also gain a CQC China certification.
Consumers can cross-reference the certificate name sent by the factory as consistent with theirs and judge whether they are dealing with a trading company or a real manufacturer.
Unfortunately, many manufacturers will pass PS or even forge the certificates to send along to purchasing parties.
The following website can help acquire the 3C information of a factory from China’s Quality Certification Center. (https://www.cqc.com.cn/www/english/certificateinquiry/)
3. Enterprise Business license and Baidu Map
In China, all enterprises must carry a set of enterprise registrations, and there is a system for tracking all of them on the internet. (http://www.gsxt.gov.cn/index.html ).
At this time, this site does not support searches in English and operates just with Chinese text. I will provide an example of a registration of our company:
This contains an accurate address and establishment date so that this information can be compared to that of the supplier’s address.
The provided address can be cross-referenced with https://map.baidu.com/ (China’s version of Google), and you can see if the company matches up.
At this time, neither website supports English search, making this process challenging.
4. Product category and specialty
There are two pivotal distinctions to keep in mind between Chinese factories and trading companies.
The companies tend to produce just one product unless they are larger groups such as CHINT or Shneider.
If that were not the case, all products made would be in one particular field.
It is also important to remember that certain factories might be integrated with industry and trade. You can inquire with the manufacturer if they are the product producers or if they purchase it externally.
The other key aspect is the level of professionalism, which tends to be more prominent than sales of foreign trade companies regarding specific parameters of the products.
Our products provide detailed explanations between nylon and PP products, their strength, brass pin length, specific temperatures, and plastic thickness.
We don’t just talk about the product’s price.
Just like our post PP or nylon When we choose industrial plug and socket?.
5. Direct visit
The most reliable way to confirm a long-term business partner and verify the high value of the products produced is personally visiting the factor.
That way, you can verify the cleanliness of the warehouses, QC efficacy, the production process’s professionalism, and anything else that could be a red flag for your concerns.
You do not need to fly to China to visit them as these visits can now be done virtually, giving you an opening to see the factory, the equipment, raw materials used, etc.
These are the judgments I can recommend making due to my years of experience.
If you are looking for industrial sockets or plugs, you are always welcome to visit our factory and assure our products and fully understand our factory.