There are hundreds of motorcycle exports companies in China, some of these are just trading companies that buy in and resell motorcycle models to the importer. The other type of trading company in the Chinese motorcycle industry is the motorcycle parts trader, a company that will source and buy from parts OEM’s at your request. Here I have a look at the spectrum of motorcycle industry trading companies and evaluate them in terms of efficiency, value and honesty.
Some motorcycle unit trading companies will give you the false impression that they are an OEM factory with many building websites that are indistinguishable from a factory website complete with pictures of their large facilities, storage, research and development and everything else that you would expect to find in the premises of a good motorcycle manufacturer. Many of these companies are featured on Alibaba and Made in China as factories, they do not check, and it can be very misleading. The only real way to test this is to threaten to visit the ‘factory’ although the most brazen of traders will take you to one of the OEM’s that he has a relationship with. Be careful of these deceptions!
Trading companies have certain advantages over OEM’s, especially for the smaller importers. A trading company will mix a container with different models from different manufacturers with little fuss. Many OEM’s will refuse to do this for the smaller customers as it requires a lot of logistical and organizational work and also they would refuse to collaborate with a competitor. Also, the trader is prone to work harder to satisfy his customers as he is not just a small cog in a giant wheel as an export clerk at a huge manufacturer may well feel to be. The trading company will on the whole be more flexible and many smaller motorcycle import companies feel them to be essential.
The disadvantages of working with a trading company include the fact that they do not have total control over quality issues as they are not making the product themselves. This means that if you have a complaint about any quality issues this cannot be resolved quickly as the trader will have to refer to the OEM for advice which will increase the time it takes to achieve a satisfactory resolution. The fact that the trader does not personally manufacture the product also means that the trader could be more expensive as his slice of the profit has to be taken before he gives you the final invoice. Also, the trader is less likely to care about your customer service once he has the money compared to an established factory brand that is also more susceptible to complaints and more closely regulated by the Chinese government and Chamber of Commerce.
Many years ago I was contacted by an inexperienced importer from the Dutch Antilles who wished to import a container of 250cc ATV’s for resale. I gave the company the contact of a reputable ATV manufacturer (actually it was Chongqing OEM Bashan) but they advised me that they had found a ‘cheaper company’ and would be going ahead with them. The result was a nightmare for the Caribbean company as when they finally received their products they turned out to be 50cc ‘kiddy quads’ which I know through experience sold for less than one hundred dollars a unit from the cheap Zhejiang manufacturers at the time. The importers contacted me with their complaint and asked me to look into this for them as the trading company they had ordered from had not replied to their messages (I had every right to tell them to do it themselves after they had ignored my advice but helped them anyway) and so I started to search for this company in order to troubleshoot the problem. The trading company did not exist and had only opened to dupe some inexperienced souls out of their money by offering really cheap products and delivering the wrong models.
The one aspect of the Chinese motorcycle industry where it’s almost impossible to avoid a trading company is the motorcycle parts industry due to the huge selection of Chinese motorcycle parts (and parts made in China for Japanese, Indian, American and European brands too). If you consider that it’s quite common for a parts importer to import a container which will contain dozens of different parts for several different motorcycle models all of which are manufactured at separate OEM’s (sprockets at the sprocket factory, cables at the cable factory etc.) then you will understand the difficult logistics that go into such a project. Also, many of the parts OEM’s either do not speak English, or do not have an export licence; these are some of the things that the trader will take care of for you. Some bigger companies will not use a trading company but this is only because they have their own offices set up in China to deal with the sourcing and logistics (a kind of trading company in itself I suppose) but on the whole an import company will need a trading company to import a selection of parts.
To conclude, if you need mixed up containers and are a smaller type of importer, trading companies will be very useful to you. Just make sure they have a good reputation before going ahead and sending money! If you find that you need a company investigated it’s best to contact David McMullan to do it for you. Happy trading!
The post THE PROS AND CONS OF WORKING WITH A CHINESE TRADING COMPANY (AS OPPOSED TO AN OEM) appeared first on Biker Malaysia.
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