When Outsourcing Metal Fabrication from China is Better Than Doing it Yourself，Just Do it

(Isstories Editorial):- Xiamen, Fujian Sep 11, 2025 (Issuewire.com) – A news on 20Aug 2025 in WA. GOV.AU came across my eyes:

A mining fabrication company has been fined $500,000 (and ordered to pay more than $6500 in costs) over an incident in which a worker was seriously injured by a falling metal plate.

One Metal Fabrication Company failed to provide and maintain a safe work environment and, by that failure, causing serious harm to a worker and was fined in the Midland Magistrates Court

More on Isstories:

This news has prompted me to finally put down on paper the thoughts that have been lingering in my heart but never written out:

If you’re looking for a trust worthy metal fabrication supplier for your machinery manufacturing or engineering projects, outsourcing from China should be at the top of your list– whether your priority is achieving superior quality or significantly reducing costs.

You might have heard for tens of times that your friends or your business competitors bought metal parts, components, or assemblies from oversea, especially from China, and had gained a lot of advantageshalf the price you make yourself or outsource from local supplier(s), quick delivery, good and consistent quality. If you happen to have a large project on hand having tight budgets, or you need a long term supplier to support your long last business, what ever concerns you might have, at least try to learn a bit more why the outsourcing should be from China, here below are some basic truths:

Massive Domestic Demand  China has a large population over 1.4 billionbut that not necessary means a massive demand for metal fabrications, because there are other countries with large population as well which have not yet large demands for metal fabrication accordingly. The second important condition to create massive demand for metal fabrication is the purchase power. Since China have been the world’s second-largest economy , therefor its domestic demand for metal fabrication is immense, fueled by ongoing infrastructure projects like bridges, roads, tunnels, and even buildings which need nearly one billion tons of steel and at least 50% of them require fabrication before being used..

Massive Metal Fabricators to meet the massive domestic demand of metal fabrication are met mostly by domestic fabricators, the people there are born to be diligent, discipline, and work hard to win success. Metal fabrication is a labor-intense industry, but also a value-added industry which require highly skilled labors who know the 4M: Metals, Maths, Machine operation, Mechanical engineering. China holds 350,000 mechanical engineers which accounts for almost 8 times of that in USA   

A Hyper-Competitive Supplier Base for Metal Fabrication fostered an enormous number of metal fabricators which are winners over others, ie. the survivors are the winners. The winners shall have to overcome many difficulties, for example, during the years of Covid-19, many fabricators faced the difficulties in material supply, labor supply, traveling, and after that, even some fabricators survived, they still had to face the difficulties to find shipping space, supply of containers. The most challenge is that most of the governments fund originally for investment in the infrastructure constructions had been paid for anti-Covid campaigns. Openex, as a professional metal fabricator, survived from the tough years, won the orders from both domestic and abroad customers, one of which was excited with Openex’ price and performance that he expressed his wish to come and look our work disregarding the need for control quarantine due to epidemic control.

To be more detailedoutsourcing metal fabrication from China has two core advantages:

Unparalleled Competitive Pricing

Supply-demand dynamics and intense competition ensure price advantages over other countries/regions
As have been mentioned above, China is both a populous nation and a manufacturing powerhouse, boasting a massive domestic market and self-sufficient capabilities. This has fostered a vast number of metal fabricators with complete industrial chains. While exact statistics on metal fabricators are unavailable, annual sales of laser cutting machines (expected to reach 70,000 units by 2025, with 50% being 1-6kW machines for thickness 1-30mm steel plates) suggest over 17,500 fabricators exist (assuming 2 laser cutters per factory). Factoring in heavy fabrication shops using flame/plasma cutting instead of lasers, the actual number is even higher. This hyper-competitive ecosystem ensures buyers always receive optimal pricing. Other regions lack either sufficient market scale or incomplete supply chains (often relying on Chinese materials/components), resulting in long waiting and highe costs.

Massive metal production capacity
China produces over 50% of global crude steel (down from peak 900 million tons in 2018 to now about 880 million tons), 58% of aluminum, and 55% of stainless steel–the three most widely used metals. This domestic abundance grants cost advantages to Chinese fabricators consequently.

Efficient logistics infrastructure
With the world’s largest highway network and automated ports (Along the coastline from north to south there are large ports of Dalian, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen, and Shenzhenskipping the less large port names), China ensures fast transportation and low logistics costs.

Low-cost & stable electricity
Power shortages that affected factories a decade ago have been resolved. China now offers consistently lower industrial electricity rates than most other countries, say third of that most of other countries can provide.

  • Surprisingly High Quality

The outdated perception of “cheap but low-quality” no longer holds. China’s metal fabrication quality excels across all processes:

Materials: Domestic carbon steel, stainless steel, and aluminum have achieved global standards through decades of development. Specialty steels (e.g., 690MPa+ high-strength steel, NM400 wear-resistant steel equivalent to Sweden’s Hardox 400) are now easy to obtain with affordable pricing in China.

Cutting: Fabricators like Openex utilize laser/plasma/waterjet cutting with precision matching needs. Chinese laser cutters cost no more than 30% of international prices, that make most of metal fabricator no hesitate to buy and use laser cutters. In addition, widespread adoption of 3D laser cutting machines also ensure the superior accuracy of cutting.

Forming: Equipped with CNC press brakes (500-3000t capacity, up to 15m length), rolling machines, and hydraulic presses are easy to seen, which make Chinese fabricators handle most fabrication tasks with precision.

Welding: Over 1.32 million welding robots (as of 2025) and for some special welding jobs not suitable for welding robots, skilled manual welders are not hard to hire with not very high wages compared with developed countries, so high quality welding in general can be expected from Chinese supplier of metal fabrication.

Machining: Advanced multi-axis CNC machine tools outperform conventional equipment in cost-performance one-chuck for all machining including turning, milling, drilling on five surfaces. This would definitely ensure high precision and high efficiency.

Assembly: The assembly works require highly skilled operators and well educated engineers and skilled technicians. As of 2025,China has over 350,000 mechanical engineers, which is said 7-8 times of that in America. The quantity of skilled technicians is probably ten times of the engineers. Such demographic dividends may disappear, as China’s birth rate has begun to decline, that means very likely 10 years later, the advantage of high quality and low price to outsource metal fabrication from China may disappear.

So, why not do it right now?

Contact with the professional metal fabricator like Openex for more discussion, whose performance can be seen from customs database.  

Media Contact
Openex

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