Steel Sourcing
How we cut landed cost by 22% for a special-steel processing importer
−22%
Landed Cost Reduction
12
Factories Vetted
100%
Quality Consistency
The Challenge
A processing-industry importer — a buyer who purchases special steel to process in-house, not a construction-grade buyer — was facing rising costs and inconsistent quality from their existing supplier. Their priority wasn't the lowest sticker price; it was stable quality and honest quantity (full weight, true grade) on every shipment, order after order.
Note: We work in special steel only — not commodity construction-grade steel.
Our Solution
We ran a full landed-cost audit, then vetted 12 candidate factories against the client's real requirement: consistent metallurgical quality and accurate weight per order. We isolated where the existing supplier was adding margin, benchmarked live market pricing, and negotiated a direct relationship with a factory that could prove stable quality and full, honest quantity on repeat orders.
Results
• 22% reduction in landed cost — no change to specification
• Stable, consistent quality across repeat orders
• Honest quantity — full weight, true grade, every shipment
• A direct, transparent supplier relationship replacing the previous arrangement