When your team sits down to buy a generator set from China, the document that decides the outcome is the purchase contract rather than the quotation. We have watched a generator set supplier china enquiry move from first email to shipment in six weeks, and we have watched an identical enquiry stall for a year over a rating class nobody wrote down. The difference between the two outcomes sits in five checks a buyer can complete before signing, and each check costs hours rather than weeks. Tesla Power answers these checks inside its standard offer sheet, and the same checks work for a buyer comparing three factories or reading one quotation from a trader. Port inspection, bank clerk and warranty claim each find a different gap, and the checks below close those gaps on paper before the steel is cut. The checks are ordered. A licence problem voids everything downstream of it, so start at the top. Work down the list, put each answer in writing, and compare the offer against the genset frames the factory actually builds before you request a quotation.
- Check the business licence, the export record and the customs file before any price is discussed.
- Walk the plant or commission an audit, and confirm the company assembles sets rather than resells them.
- Pin the rating class to ISO 8528-1 wording, because prime and standby are different figures on the same frame.
- Fix the payment stages, the Incoterms 2020 term and the spares list in the contract before the deposit moves.
How do you verify a generator set supplier china company?
The business licence names the registered capital, the legal representative and the scope of business, and all three are readable on the public registry before any email is answered. A scope that lists assembly and manufacture supports a factory claim. A scope that lists trade and agency only tells the buyer to keep auditing. We read the registry first, then ask the supplier for the customs declaration numbers of two shipments from the last year.
An export licence question is narrower than it looks. Most generator set manufacturers in china ship through a licensed export agent rather than under their own name, and both routes clear customs. What matters is whose name appears on the commercial invoice and the bill of lading, because the warranty follows that name. Ask for a blank copy of each document from an earlier order and read the shipper line with care.
Tesla Power issues the licence copy, the scope extract and two redacted customs files with every first quotation, because the three documents answer this section without a phone call. A buyer can run the same check on any supplier in a morning. Where a supplier hesitates on the shipper line, treat the hesitation as the answer and move the enquiry to the next name on the list.
Factory audit or trading company: which are you buying from?
The licence tells you what the company may do. The audit tells you what the company actually does, and the two answers differ more often than a first-time buyer expects. An assembly line needs a fabrication shop, an alternator store, a paint booth, a test bay with a resistive load bank and a service workshop, and a trading office has none of them.
Ask the supplier for a live video walk of the test bay during a load bank run, not a recorded tour. A 500kVA set on test shows the cables, the bank and the controller in one frame, and the date on the controller screen matches the day. Ask which engine and alternator brands the plant assembles this month, and ask the brand regional office to confirm the assembly licence.
An audit report from a third party helps, and ISO 9001 registration gives the audit a structure to check against. Registration alone proves a process, so read the scope line on the certificate. A scope that covers trade of generator sets describes a different company from one that covers manufacture, and the difference is the factory checklist in our manufacturer guide. Tesla Power keeps the scope line of its own certificate inside the offer for the same reason.
Is the rating class prime or standby on the offer?
Prime and standby are not two prices for the same machine. They are two duty classes defined in the ISO 8528-1 duty classes, and the same frame carries a lower continuous figure in prime duty than in standby. An offer that prints a rating without a class leaves the buyer to guess which figure the price is built on.
| Item on the offer | Prime class | Standby class |
|---|---|---|
| Continuous load allowed | Unlimited hours per year at the rating | Limited hours, emergency use |
| Overload step | 10 percent for one hour in twelve | None |
| Figure on the same frame | 250kVA | About 275kVA |
| Where the price sits | Higher per kVA, honest for daily duty | Lower, honest for outages only |
The same frame that carries 250kVA in prime duty carries about 275kVA in standby, and an offer priced on the standby figure reads cheaper than it is. A generator set for prime duty prints the class beside the rating on the offer sheet, and a generator set in containerised form repeats it on the canopy plate. Ask one question in writing: which class does the quotation price, and how many hours a year does that class allow at full load? The written answer travels into the contract, where a verbal one does not. The arithmetic is one line: 500kVA at 0.8 power factor = 400kW of real output, a 250kVA frame = 200kW, and the unnamed standby figure on the same 500kVA frame = 275kVA of apparent rating.
Which payment and Incoterms 2020 terms belong in the contract?
Payment stages follow the risk. A first order usually runs thirty percent with the order and seventy percent against the copy of the bill of lading, and a letter of credit replaces the balance stage where the bank relationship allows one. Whatever the structure, the stage that releases the largest share should follow a document the buyer can inspect, not a promise the goods are ready.
The Incoterms 2020 term decides who insures, who clears and who carries the risk at each leg. FOB suits a buyer with a forwarder in China. CIF puts marine insurance on the seller but keeps the risk transfer at the ship rail. DAP moves the inland leg to the seller and costs more. Name one term, in capital letters, with the named port, and keep the same term in the invoice.
A 800kVA frame for a site with its own forwarder and an 800kVA frame sold DAP to the door differ by more than freight. Send the draft term to the quotation desk at the works before the contract prints, and Tesla Power returns the offer restated on the term the buyer names rather than on the term that flatters the price.
What does the spares and warranty chain have to cover?
The warranty clause is only as good as the chain behind it. A twelve month or 1000 hour warranty means little if the spare parts sit in a warehouse three provinces away from the port of discharge. Write the spares list into the contract itself: filters, belts, a set of injectors, a battery charger and the controller manual in the site language, priced at cost rather than at list price.
The spares question belongs in the contract itself rather than in an email after delivery, where it is quietly forgotten by both sides. Tesla Power Equipment packs the first spares set with the machine on the same shipment, because a part that follows six weeks later is a part the site does without for six weeks. The contract should also name the response time for technical questions, the channel for warranty claims and the document that proves the claim: the commissioning sheet, signed at handover. A warranty without a paper trail is a promise with no address.
Ask which documents travel with the machine. The set that leaves the works with its test report, its wiring diagrams and its controller password sheet starts its service life on the record, and the CE route for Europe is set out in our marking and conformity article.
Where a generator set supplier for hospital projects differs
A generator set supplier for hospital projects answers questions a warehouse buyer does not ask: room ventilation, fuel polishing, a monthly test schedule the facility team has to follow, and a canopy rated for the noise limit at the boundary. Ask how the supplier documents these items, because a hospital file is read by an inspector rather than by a site foreman.
A generator set supplier in coastal ports adds a different file: the canopy coating class, the alternator insulation against salt mist, and the treatment of the steel base. Yangzhou Tesla Power records both files against the serial number, so the answers stay attached to the set long after the salesperson who wrote them has moved on. The pattern holds for any duty. Ask for the file, not for the assurance. The figure belongs on the offer sheet beside the rating, where a buyer can read it against the site conditions.
Which documents the buyer must keep on file after delivery
The documents the buyer must keep on file start with the commercial invoice, the packing list, the bill of lading and the certificate of origin. Add the factory test report, the alternator data sheet and the commissioning sheet. The five checks in this article produce one document each, and the file is the contract made physical.
The certificate of origin decides the duty rate at import, so read the chamber stamp before the file closes. Conformity assessment for the genset follows the destination: CE marking with the EU machinery rules for Europe, and the buyer keeps the declaration of conformity beside the machinery regulation text. A missing declaration surfaces at the worst moment, which is usually a year after commissioning. The same reasoning applies to the second frame, which carries the correction on its own plate rather than in a note.
How offers from generator set manufacturers in china compare
Once the five checks are answered, two offers become comparable on the basis rather than on the price. Generator set manufacturers in china quote the frame, the class and the term in different orders, so line the four figures up in a table before reading the total. Chinese generator set suppliers who answer the checks in writing have already done most of the work a contract needs. The same frame appears in the silent 500kVA ATS export build, where the plate states the same basis.
Tesla Power prices the 500kVA class in our price notes on the same basis, and the note shows how the class, the term and the spares set move the figure. A buyer who runs the five checks on three offers finds the spread narrows to the items that matter, which is the point of the exercise. A site that records the reading each month sees the change before it reaches the trip point on the controller.
Frequently asked questions before you sign
Sometimes, on a frame the trader buys in volume. The check is not the title on the door but the file behind the offer: whose test report, whose warranty and whose name on the bill of lading. A trader who discloses all three can be compared with a factory on equal terms.
One working day on site covers the shop, the store, the paint line and the test bay. A live video walk takes an hour and answers most of the same questions. Third party audits add a week of scheduling and a report the buyer can hand to a board.
The class that matches the duty the site plans, not the highest figure available. A set that runs only during outages fits standby, and a set that runs against the grid fits prime. The nameplate and the offer sheet should show the same class, and the contract should repeat it.
FOB suits most first orders, because the buyer keeps the freight contract and the seller keeps the export clearance. DAP suits a buyer without a forwarder in China. The term matters less than the habit of naming it once and keeping the invoice, the contract and the booking on the same term.
Thirty percent with the order and seventy percent before shipment is the common structure, sometimes split again against the test report. Ask for the load bank test before the balance moves. A supplier who offers a test before payment is confident in the file behind the offer.
Send the load list, the destination port and the duty class you plan to buy. Tesla Power replies with a quotation restated on those three items and the licence file attached. From there the five checks become five lines in the contract, and the review closes in days rather than months.