How to Verify a Chinese Natural Stone Supplier Before Placing a Large Order

Stone is one of the highest-risk categories to import from China. A single 40-foot container can be worth tens of thousands of dollars, the stone is one-of-a-kind (there is no spare unit to swap in if one slab fails), and marketing photos can be beautiful while the actual slabs on the floor are not.

Below is the verification process we recommend to importers - the same process we expect to pass when buyers vet us.

1. Understand the company structure before you judge it

Two-entity structures are normal in the Fujian stone industry: one company handles trade and export (often in Xiamen, where the port is and where buyers visit), and another handles production (in the stone cluster, for example Nan'an). Ask both for business licenses and check that they are related - shared shareholders or a documented supply relationship. A supplier who can only show a vague "group" brochure is a red flag.

We are exactly this structure: Xiamen Shenglei Trade Co., Ltd. handles export, and Fujian Nan'an Haocan Stone Co., Ltd. produces the stone in Nan'an. Both names appear on our website, our invoices and our packing lists, and the production company's name is printed on the footer of every page.

2. Verify registration and history

Request a copy of the business license (with an English translation if needed) and cross-check the company name, registered capital and establishment date. A company founded well before your first contact - ours dates to 2005 - with a consistent registration history is safer than one registered last year.

Search the company name in both Chinese and English. Ask about export experience specifically: which markets, since when, which ports. Vague answers ("many countries, many years") are a red flag; specific ones ("we have shipped to Australia and the UAE since 2011 from Xiamen") are what a working export desk gives you.

3. Verify factory capability with specifics

Ask for the equipment list and capacity in numbers: how many gang saws, how many bridge cutters, monthly output in square metres. We publish ours - 5 gang saws, 8 infrared bridge cutters, over 20,000 m2 of slab and over 15,000 m2 of cut-to-size per month on a 20-mu (13,333 m2) site - and we expect the same specificity from anyone you are vetting.

Ask for a live video call on the factory floor. A real factory will do this without hesitation: walk the slab yard, the cutting line and the packing line, and show current orders. A photo from three years ago, or a stock video of "a Chinese factory", is not verification.

Ask what blocks are currently being cut and where the blocks come from. A production company knows its block pipeline; a pure broker stumbles.

4. Photo and sample discipline

Require recent, unedited full-slab photos with slab numbers. The same numbered slab should reappear in the later inspection photos - the number is the thread that runs through your whole order (see our slab photo guide).

Order a physical sample before any container: a 300 x 300 mm tile or an offcut from the actual block. The sample tells you the real colour and movement, not the marketing version.

5. Inspection and payment terms that protect you

Arrange a third-party inspection before the container is sealed, or at minimum require a full photo and video report of every numbered slab. Our standard offer to buyers is exactly that photo set - ask for it before you order, not after a problem appears.

• On payment: for a first relationship, staged terms are standard - a deposit on order, the balance against the copy of the bill of lading, or by letter of credit. Be cautious of any supplier who demands 100% in advance and refuses inspection.
• Get the remedy in writing: how a defective or mismatched slab is handled (replacement or credit), and who bears the cost if damage is found at the port.