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Buying polycarbonate & acrylic sheets from china ocean freight save 60% vs usa

Bly

New Member
Interesting, I never knew there was that much of a difference. Then again we generally only stick to a couple of the brands.

Do you mine sharing the preferred 3 brands? Just in case we try out others I would want to make sure it isn't something that will ruin our trade router's bits!

Thanks.

Some are possibly Aussie rebranded brands but here's what lasermade.com.au say.
 

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bilge

New Member
Importing from China isn’t a bad thing or against the economy. Only thing is customers should be informed origin of the material. What I do is offering both.
For wraps Avery (Danish or Dutch?) 3M (USA) vs Hong Yong (China), for laser engraving Rowmark (USA) vs Shengwei (China), for photoprinting HP (USA) vs Zeafee (China) etc. at different price.
Despite I’m saying I don’t give any guarantee on chinese material majority of customers choose chinese. It is cheap and gives me more profit because of fast turnover.
If the customers paid for normal products but given chinese knock offs then it considered as scam. It’s unfair to the customers and the competitors too.
See how chinese off brand acrylics stand just after one year, faded and distorted. But not all of them like this, several good staff exist which I mentioned earlier.
 

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aluminumwelder

New Member
aluminum

for those looking for aluminum extrusions, the pricing I got back from one company was
$2760/1000KG for anodized extrusions =$2.76/kg = $1.25/lb before duty and freight fees.
$2460/1000KG for mill finish extrusions
by the time one pays the 50% duty/tax it works out to $2/lb which is pretty close to what most people pay in the USA for mill finish
However $2/lb for anodized metal is a bargain. I currently pay around $4/lb for anodized extrusions and I have to buy 1500lbs at a time to get that price.

keep in mind this is only one company, for a single 20 ft container
better deals might be out there.

if one uses a lot of anodized metal china seems competitive,.
 

aluminumwelder

New Member
vietnamese aluminum prices I got back from one supplier are as follows
$1.48 per pound for anodized aluminum extrusions
$1.18 per pound for mill finish aluminum extrusions
This pricing was based on buying a whole 20' long container of various extrusions.
shipping the container to us port and then trucking the goods inland will probably add $3000 to total bill.

what stood out to me is how inexpensive the anodized finish is! I typically pay about $3/lb for anodized aluminum and that is in mill order 1500 lb minimum orders from the aluminum suppliers I use.

Nice thing about anodized alumimum is you can store it outside under a tarp and it stays very nice, mill finish aluminum will get water staining on it.
however welding anodized aluminum is not so fun.
 

Gino

Premium Subscriber
You don't have a proper membership to advertise. Look at the rules to the forum and apply rightfully.
 
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