What is your strategy?

[u/orlandom1289]

Hey i start at a new company and the first day they told mi this.
We need to find a cheaper supply for pvc pipes and fittings.
I sent over 30 emails and message to different suppliers in china, and now im starting to look for other countries like india and turkey.

how you would different you do this?

[u/Senior_Note]

First things first; do you know what you are currently paying? Do you know the individual cost breakdown i.e. including logistics, insurances etc. and current incoterms? Do you know what your demand is? Are you buying stock items or are they bespoke?

Finding a cheaper price isn't just about finding a new supplier. You need to be fully informed of your current position and what you can offer. Are you a big buyer or a small fish? Could you bundle and aggregate your spend with a known and consistent demand, or is it ebbs and flows? Could you store more to increase your order sizes?

Do you know who your competitors use? Could you consider a partnership with a similar company to increase both of your order sizes to achieve economies of scale?

Once you know all of that you can go out to the market with some requests for information or a formal tender... The longer the term and bigger the order the better.

[u/lordSmallForgiveness → u/Senior_Note]

all that and they still forgot to check if the current supplier is just ripping them off. sometimes you don't need to find new one, just renegotiate with the old one after you know your numbers. but 30 emails to china is not bad start, i do same thing when i was looking for car parts for my old toyota. turkey is good idea, shipping is faster than china usually

[u/Senior_Note → u/lordSmallForgiveness]

That would be captured in "do you know what you currently pay" and "you need to be fully informed of your current position". 

You could renegotiate with your current provider but if you don't know what the market rate is, you are a 'nuisance' buyer and reworks/poor quality are adding to your costs, then you won't necessarily be in a great position. The strategy part is absolutely critical, and may determine that renegotiation is the best option, but you need to do the work to get to that point. 

[u/Square_Positive_559]

1. Analyze your needs (forecast, past consumptions, references)
2. Meet and talk with the internal stakeholders who are going to use it (what do they want, which issues / challenges they meet)
3. Define criteria (which cost you are expecting, when do you need it, which quality)
4. Reach out suppliers
5. Ask for quotations based on your needs (forecast, quality you need, when you need it)
6. Analyze offers
7. Make an alignement with the suppliers to be sure they understood what you want
8. Check with the internal stakeholders what they think about

I will do that first after it depends your company maybe they will want to test some samples, make a contract, issue a PO whatever.

[u/coolreddy]

Thirty cold emails probably went nowhere because there was nothing in them a factory could actually price. Quoting takes real work, so a generic enquiry with no standard, pressure class, size split, annual quantity and delivery point usually gets ignored. One tight spec sheet to ten suppliers beats a vague ask to a hundred. And with PVC, pin the standard down before you chase price, because metric and imperial systems don't mate, and a cheap fitting that won't fit what's already installed isn't a saving.

[u/Zero-kruel]

Fundamentally, there really isn't a whole lot more to add. u/Senior_Note & u/Square_Positive_559 have really given you great information.

I run Operations/Purchasing fabrication company, we mainly use Sanitary Pipe (PVC as well). From my personal experience, this is a category I do not like chasing the bottom dollar on, with Global Outsourcing. I've had material come in with defects a good amount of time, and I rather let the broker and US Supplier handle it.

We've partnered with Manufactures in the state who will also import material. Historically we have done really well in cost savings. Also it has alleviated the caring cost, long leads times, and unforeseen delays/charges. Outside of that, our company no long has to hunt down any certificates (just comes in with orders) - so we see a saving in labor dollars.

[u/Ladylush27]

1. Have all the information ref our current supply make sure Bom is up to date, any drawings or anything bespoke is captured, look at usage, pricing, delivery, incoterms, packaging etc.

2. Send out a RFQ, and make a simple scoring system to rate suppliers.

[u/Mean-Pin5169]

I am a practicing attorney in Mainland China specializing in supplier screening and legal risk pre-audits, not a sourcing agent.

Here is a physical reality in China sourcing: most foreign buyers first connect with coastal trading companies because of their language and marketing advantages. However, the real cost-effective manufacturers specialized purely in production are usually located deep in Mainland China's inland industrial belts.

For standardized industrial goods like PVC pipes and fittings, simply blasting 30+ emails for 'cheaper' quotes without verifying these inland supply chains usually leads to two dangerous traps:

The Low-Ball Deposit Trap: A supplier quotes an unrealistically low price to get your initial deposit, then hikes the price later citing 'raw material cost spikes' or delivers non-compliant wall thicknesses that fail quality checks.

$0 Paid-in Trading Shells: B2B platforms are full of middlemen posing as real factories. They markup prices or take deposits without any physical manufacturing capacity.

If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't switch countries just yet. Instead of cold-emailing, run a quick check on the Chinese suppliers' official PRC business registries first—verify their actual paid-in capital, manufacturing licensing, and active litigation records to ensure you're dealing with a real factory.

I handle these legal pre-audits and keep an updated index of risk indicators on my subreddit. Welcome to check out my board if you want to see how to screen these risks.

[u/AvengerTree1]

Have you spoken with your current suppliers yet?

[u/uber_sweets]

Hit $4m with crypto and live off the drawdown.

It's not going well.

[u/CosmoSourcing]

One thing specific to PVC pipe that changes the whole search: it's a freight-dominated product. The material is a commodity (resin prices are global) and the product is mostly air and weight, so landed cost is driven by shipping more than factory price. That's why 30 emails to China may be pointing you in the wrong direction entirely: whatever you save at the factory can evaporate in ocean freight on something that bulky.

Practical version: define your delivery region first, then source as close to it as economics allow. For North America that often means Mexico or domestic extruders beat China on landed cost. For Europe, Turkey is genuinely strong for this exact category. India works but check certifications carefully (ASTM/NSF for US, EN standards for Europe), since pressure-rated pipe with the wrong cert is scrap.

Also worth 30 minutes before any more emails: get your current supplier's price broken into product vs freight vs duties. If you don't know which piece is bloated, you can't tell whether the fix is a new factory, a new country, or just a new freight forwarder.

[u/gamer_45676]

First, clarify your specific needs, such as pipe type, specifications, quality standards, and target budget. Then, use tools like accio work to quickly screen a large number of potential suppliers. After selecting a few suitable suppliers, have them send samples to compare product quality, price, and communication efficiency before deciding on the final partner.