China: Buying

In this page: Customs Procedures | Industrial and Manufacturing Profile | Identifying a Supplier | Controlling the Quality of the Products | Organizing Goods Transport To and From China

Customs Procedures

Export Clearance

An export license is required for a foreign trade company (FTC) as soon as it wants to export goods from China. However, this may not be necessary if the goods are under incoterm FOB (free on board). An export license or permit is a document that gathers information about the exporter, the buyer, the cargo, the value and the mode of transportation and it is issued to firms by the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).

Necessary Declaration

In general, the supplier provides:

export licensed or permit
certificate of origin
HS Code
invoice
packing list
certificate of fumigation
Value and description of the merchandise
Composition of the merchandise
Finished/semi-finished
Name/contacts of the supplier
Destination of product
Recipient

Restrictions

The China’s Ministry of Commerce has classified goods in three categories in order to determine what type of export license is required for each goods: the permitted goods (automatically licensed), the restricted goods and the prohibited goods.The restricted goodscan be exported, but either license approval or annual quotas allows their control and their regulation. The exportation of prohibited products is absolutely banned and cannot be traded.

Export Taxes

Only a few goods and semi-finished products are subject to export duties. As of January 2020, China continues to impose export tariffs or provisional export duties on 107 commodities with fixed and unchanged tax rates.

Industrial and Manufacturing Profile

Type of Production: Industry (including construction) amounts to 39% of Chinese GDP, according to the World Bank. Principal industries in China are mining (world leader in reserves of tungsten , molybdenum and titanium), coal (world leader in coal production and consumption), metallurgy, petrochemicals, naval (leading shipbuilding nation), automotive (China was the leading market for motor vehicle production with about 25.7 million cars and commercial vehicles produced in 2019) and energy (second producer in electrical energy). China is also the world's biggest producer of electric household appliances products (creating one third of worldwide production), third largest producer in data-processing products (second for the PC), the largest producer of toys (70% of worldwide production), largest producer of shoes and the largest producer and exporter of textiles.

Professional Associations by Sector: 86 professional associations listed for China.

Type of Manufacturers

Original Equipment Manufacturers: Chinese OEM's are in automobile industry aeronautics industry, mobile phone industry and laptops. Many of these OEM are at the same time, ODM's.
Original Design Manufacturers: The ODM in China specializes in the manufacture of electronic products with a cost advantage. Certain ODM are well internationally established OEM. Several startups are specialized in wireless, digital products or instrumentation. Some examples are: China Electronics Corp., Panda Electronics, Shinko Electronics.
Subcontractors: China is one of the 3 great centers of international subcontracting. Subcontracting is particularly developed in China in the textile and shoe industry, in the mechanical engineering and machinery industry. China has cheap labor, university graduates speaking foreign languages and a telecommunication network and an ever expanding Internet.
Useful Resources: Chinese sourcing summit

Identifying a Supplier

Business Directories

Multi-sector Directories: 2345 - Multi-sector directory for the Chinese market
2FindLocal China - Multisector directory for the Chinese market
All.biz - China - Directory of companies in China
BizExposed China - Business directory for China
BizPages China - Chinese business directory
Bloombiz China - Business directory for China
Business Directory China - China business directory
China and Taiwan Products Online - Directory of manufacturers from China and Chinese Taipei.
China Business Directory - Business directory for China
China Directory - Chinese business directory

To search directories by industry in China, check out our service Business Directories.

Marketplaces

Marketplaces incorporated in the country: 1688
21food
Alibaba
Aliexpress
B2B China Sources
ChemNet
China Textile Network
CHINA.CN
Chinamarket
DHgate
Marketplaces present on the continent: AsiaTradeHub
CargoSmart
EquipNet
FreeMarketsDefence
Komachine
SalvageSale
ShipServ
StoneBTB.com
SupplyOn
SurplusGLOBAL

To go further, check out our service Online Marketplaces.

Fairs and Trade Shows

Trade Shows Database: Our database contains 1.27 significant fairs and trade shows taking place in China. To go further, check out our database.
Upcoming Trade Shows: D•PES SIGN EXPO CHINA - CHANGSHA

February 1st, 2023

Wholesale, B2B intermediaries - Retail, distribution - Retail business - Communication - Advertising - Sponsorship - Edition, graphic art, printing and reproduction - Edition, graphic art, printing and reproduction: unspecified - Graphic art, desktop publishing - Publishing - Printing, reproduction - Mail, stamps, cards - Iconography, various prints - Publication, arts: other

CHINA VMF

February 1st, 2023

Wholesale, B2B intermediaries - Retail, distribution - Retail business - Marketing - Incentive - Commercial property, patents, trademarks - Products and services for weddings - Hotels, accommodation - Restaurants, home deliveries - Cafes, bars, nightclubs

CSF

February 1st, 2023

Wholesale, B2B intermediaries - Retail, distribution - Retail business - Marketing - Incentive - Commercial property, patents, trademarks

PROLIGHT + SOUND GUANGZHOU

February 1st, 2023

Dance - Music, opera - Theatre - Audio-visual, Multimedia - Audio-visual, sound, video - Cinema - Multimedia - Radio, television - Masonry, carpentry, pipework - Electrical installations - Communication - Advertising - Sponsorship - Electric energy - Electrical equipment - Press, journalism - Specialised information, business alerts - Exhibitions, conferences - Travel, exhibitions, incentives

CHINA PET FAIR

February 1st, 2023

Vets - Pet shops

SOUNDLIGHT GUANGZHOU

February 1st, 2023

Dance - Music, opera - Theatre - Audio-visual, Multimedia - Audio-visual, sound, video - Cinema - Multimedia - Radio, television - Press, journalism - Specialised information, business alerts

PLCE

February 1st, 2023

Heating, air conditioning, ventilation - Food industry - Food industry: unspecified - Alcoholic drinks - Non-alcoholic drinks - Bakery, pastry, confectionery - Cereals, spices, tobacco - Fruits and vegetables - Dry groceries, packaged goods - Dairy products - Fish and seafood - Meat and poultry - Industrial cooling, thermal processes - Automobile manufacturing, lorries - Transportation, logistics, handling - Freight

D•PES SIGN EXPO CHINA - CHONGQING

February 1st, 2023

Wholesale, B2B intermediaries - Retail, distribution - Retail business - Communication - Advertising - Sponsorship - Edition, graphic art, printing and reproduction - Edition, graphic art, printing and reproduction: unspecified - Graphic art, desktop publishing - Publishing - Printing, reproduction - Mail, stamps, cards - Iconography, various prints - Publication, arts: other

CIAACE

February 1st, 2023

Automobiles, lorries - Automobile subcontracting, lorries - Embedded systems

D•PES SIGN EXPO CHINA - GUANZHOU

February 1st, 2023

Wholesale, B2B intermediaries - Retail, distribution - Retail business - Communication - Advertising - Sponsorship - Edition, graphic art, printing and reproduction - Edition, graphic art, printing and reproduction: unspecified - Graphic art, desktop publishing - Publishing - Printing, reproduction - Mail, stamps, cards - Iconography, various prints - Publication, arts: other

Other Useful Resources

Trade Agencies and Their Representations Abroad: Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Minerals, Metals and Chemical Products (CCCMC)
Chinese agencies of assistance to investment abroad

Finding Assistance

Recommended Resource: NEW STEP INTERNATIONAL LIMITED - INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS CONSULTING

Controlling the Quality of the Products

Quality Control Organizations: CIS China Inspection Services

Organizing Goods Transport To and From China

Main Useful Means of Transport: Ten ports in mainland China are included among the 30 top container harbors in the world. The port of Shanghai is by far the busiest in the world. The cargo turnover of Shanghai port exceeded 40 million twenty-foot equivalent shipping units (TEUs) in 2018 (latest data available). In 2018, the country shipped 249.8 million TEUs, which was a 5.3% increase on the previous year.

Road freight is the most prominent mode of cargo transportation in China. As of 2018, China had one of the largest road networks in the world. It measured around 4.8 million kilometers, second only to the United States. In 2019 there was a drop in the total volume of goods transported by road in China. Nonetheless, in 2019, cargo road freight traffic volume in China amounted to nearly six trillion ton-kilometers.  

In 2019, the cargo volume of China's air freight traffic amounted to approximately 26.32 billion ton-kilometers. China currently has 238 civil aviation airports, including the world's second busiest in Beijing.

Railroads are the principal mode of transport and the cheapest solution for long distance freight. In 2019, the volume of China's rail freight traffic had amounted to 3.02 trillion ton-kilometers. The country's state railways transported 299 million tons of freight in May 2020, an increase of 11.15 million tons compared to a year ago, according to data from China State Railway Group Co Ltd. There are currently a total of 141,400 km of railway lines in China, including 36,000 km of high-speed lines, the most important in the world, according to China State Railway Group figures. China aims to have about 200,000 kilometers of railway tracks by the end of 2035, including about 70,000 km of high-speed railway.

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