Buying caustic soda flakes from China: how to check a supplier

Most importers who get hurt buying caustic soda from China were not cheated on price — they were sold someone else's material, or a grade that never existed, by a party with no plant behind them. This page is the check we would run ourselves if we were on the buying side, and we have left in the awkward parts.

First question: is this a plant or a reseller?

Both are legitimate, and both can quote you a container. The difference shows up later:

• A plant controls the specification, the batch COA and the shipping schedule. When a limit has to be met, the plant can adjust production or tell you honestly that it cannot.
• A trader without a plant buys from wherever the price is lowest that month. That is fine for a spot cargo, but the material in your second container may come from a different producer, with a different impurity profile.
• A trader pretending to be a plant is the one to avoid — websites full of factory photos that belong to someone else, and a price that only exists until you pay.

Ask one direct question: what is the name and address of the plant that will produce this batch, and will the certificate of analysis carry that plant's name? A plant answers in one line. A reseller starts negotiating.

Verify the licence, not the brochure

Chinese producers of sodium hydroxide hold licences that carry identifying numbers. They can be checked in public registers rather than taken on trust:

• The Unified Social Credit Code identifies the company that actually exists. It appears on legitimately issued documents, and the registered name, address and scope should match what you were sent.
• A Safety Production Licence for hazardous chemicals covers sodium hydroxide production. Note the licensed capacity: a plant licensed for tens of thousands of tonnes a year behaves very differently from a blender.
• For food-grade material, a Food Additive Production Licence (a number beginning with SC in China) must exist for the entity that produces or packs it — and the number printed on the bags should be traceable to that entity. If the bag you were shown carries a licence belonging to a company in another province, ask why before you pay.

One caution we would give any buyer: a company name is not unique in China. There are several alkali producers with the same short trading name in different provinces. Match the full registered name and the code, not the brand on the website.

Where the material comes from

Caustic soda is chlor-alkali chemistry: producers sit where power, salt and steam are cheap. China's flake capacity is concentrated in the north and west — Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Jiangsu, Xinjiang — and the loading port usually follows the plant, not the buyer's convenience: Tianjin (Xingang) and Qingdao for northern plants, Shanghai or Ningbo for others. A supplier who claims an Inner Mongolian plant but ships from a southern port is worth a second question; freight is the reason.

Wuhai, where our plant sits, is a state-designated chlor-alkali base in Inner Mongolia, so flake caustic and its feedstock industries are the local business rather than a side line.

Documents that prove the goods

Before you release the balance payment, a supplier should be able to show you the batch certificate of analysis, the packing list, the seal number and photographs of the container as it was loaded — not a stock photo, the actual containers. Ask for the seal number in writing; it appears on the bill of lading, so it cannot be invented after the fact. Our document list is set out on documents and downloads.

About the price

Flake caustic moves with energy costs, chlor-alkali operating rates and ocean freight, so a quote is a snapshot, not a list price. Two habits protect you:

• Ask how long the offer is valid. A serious exporter states a validity period and honours it.
• Be suspicious of a price well below every other quote in the market. It is usually one of: material from a smaller producer with a different specification, a grade substitution, extra costs appearing later in the invoice, or no intention to ship at all.

Equally, the cheapest supplier is not automatically the risk. Ask what is behind the number: producer name, port of loading, packing weight and Incoterm.

Payment terms and risk

For a first order with a Chinese exporter, a common structure is a deposit by telegraphic transfer with the balance against a copy of the bill of lading, or a letter of credit if both banks accept one. What matters is that the party receiving your money is the party named on the invoice, the contract and the bill of lading. If the account holder is a third company, stop and ask.

The red-flag list

• Refuses to name the producing plant, or names one whose licence you cannot find.
• Will not send a specification sheet or MSDS before you pay.
• Quotes food grade with no licence number, or a number that traces to a different company.
• Sends other people's factory photos as load evidence.
• Asks for payment to a personal account or to a company unrelated to the contract.
• Changes the price after the deposit, citing "the market moved", when the offer had a stated validity.

What we do when you ask

We are the export arm of the plant in Wuhai, so the answer to "who makes it" is short: we do, in Xilaifeng Industrial Park, and the material ships under our own export rights. Where a requirement cannot be met — a specification outside our production range, a certificate we do not hold — we say so in the quotation instead of discovering it at the loading port. If that sounds like the supplier you are looking for, start with the enquiry form, and compare what you get back with any other quote you are holding.