Collection · 8 notes
Importing and logistics
Most of the risk in an import sits between the factory gate and the site, in documents and in weeks, not in aluminium. These notes follow the order through that stretch: what the price contains, which term moves the risk, where the calendar goes, and what the crate has to survive.
Start with the guideImporting aluminium windows from ChinaThe buyer guide that puts the five decisions in order.- October 21, 2026Importing aluminium windows from China: a buyer guideImporting aluminium windows from China is a sequence of five decisions, and each one locks the next: what the unit has to prove, what it is made of, how it travels, what it costs to land, and who is standing on site when the crate opens. This guide walks the sequence and points to the detailed piece behind each step.
- October 19, 2026Window distributor terms: what the agreement coversA window distributor is not buying a different product. The factory, the systems and the test reports are the ones a project buyer gets. What changes is the packaging: an order specified once and rebuilt on the next one, service kits and spares pre-allocated per unit, freight planned against container counts, not square metres, and warranty schedules written into a contract, not a brochure. This piece sets out what the programme contains, which numbers are commitments and which are targets, and which questions have to be settled in writing before the first order.
- October 12, 2026Site delivery and the last mileA container of windows reaching the destination port is the halfway point, not the finish. Site delivery — the leg from the port to the opening — is where the glass actually meets the building, and it is where most of the handling risk sits. This is the part of the order the loading report, the crate list and the crane plan are written for.
- October 9, 2026Window lead times from China: a week-by-week breakdownA full window lead time from a Chinese factory runs roughly 10 to 14 weeks from approved drawings to arrival at the destination port: 30–45 days of production plus 30–45 days of ocean, with the drawing phase in front of the clock. Where a project lands inside that band is decided by the specification, not by urgency, and each phase has a different owner. Here is the schedule, week by week, and what shortens it.
- October 8, 2026How to choose an aluminium window manufacturer in ChinaYou cannot verify an aluminium window manufacturer from a website. You verify it from four things: what is made under one roof, what the test documentation is referenced to, how shop drawings are produced, and whether you can hold a sample that matches the specification. Everything else is a brochure. This is the checklist we expect a serious buyer to run on us.
- October 4, 2026Container loading: how windows actually packContainer loading of factory-assembled windows runs differently from flat-processed ones, and the difference shows up in the loading report and the crate list. Frames stack on their long edge, assembled sashes ride in their own crate with the glass protected on the face, and the packing is planned so the crate order matches the floor order on site — the agent can claim the container, match a crate to a floor, and start setting the same day.
- October 4, 2026Incoterms for window orders: FOB, CIF, DDPThe Incoterm on a window order is not a formality — it decides who books the freight, who insures the container of glass, and where the risk changes hands. Most of our export orders run FOB to the destination, because the buyer controls the freight and the buyer controls the cost. CIF adds the freight and insurance to a named port; DAP and DDP carry the shipment further, to the site or the cleared destination, and the price and the timeline change with them. Name the term and the place, and the rest follows.
- October 4, 2026Customs duties on aluminium windowsAluminium windows and doors travel on a specific customs line, and the customs duties that apply depend on the destination and, often, on the country of origin. The product sits under the aluminium structures heading — HS 7610 for windows, doors and their frames — and the rate is set by the destination tariff schedule, by any trade agreement in force, and on some routes by additional measures on aluminium goods. The number is the importer of record to check, and the paperwork has to match the goods exactly.
Other collections
Working on a project? The range in detail carries each system and its limits, and the contact page takes a drawing set.