Some project buyers arrive in China having already chosen their suppliers. The factories were found at a trade event, inherited from a previous project, nominated by the designer, or built up over years of direct contact. What is missing is not sourcing — it is the China-side handling between the factory gate and the vessel: somewhere for the goods to land, someone to receive and count them against the purchase order, and one export shipment instead of several.
This page describes that scope on its own. It is a receiving, storage, consolidation and export documentation service for goods bought from suppliers the buyer appointed, and it does not require the buyer to move those suppliers to us or to buy anything else through us.
What the scope covers
- Collection from your suppliers. We arrange domestic collection from each factory within the Guangdong clusters, or receive deliveries the factory sends in.
- Receiving against your purchase order. Every delivery is booked in against the PO it belongs to: carton count, carton marks, item codes and quantities per code, and the condition of the outer packaging as it arrives.
- Discrepancy reporting. Short shipments, surplus cartons, missing marks and damaged outer packaging are reported to you with photographs and the PO line they relate to, so you can take it up with the supplier while the goods are still in China.
- Storage. The goods are held until the rest of the order arrives or until the programme calls for them, so an early factory does not force an early shipment.
- Consolidation planning. We plan the load across all your suppliers: what fits in which container, what has to travel flat, what cannot be stacked, and how the load is sequenced against the order the site needs it in.
- Marking and labelling. Cartons are marked to your scheme — by unit type, level, room, or PO line — so that the goods can be distributed on site without being opened first.
- Loading and export. Goods are loaded into full containers and booked for export. Loads ship as full container loads.
- Export documentation. Commercial documents, packing list, and the export paperwork the shipment needs, issued under FBM Sourcing’s own name as the shipper.
Already chose your factories in China?
FBM Sourcing can take the goods from there: collection, receiving against your purchase orders, storage, consolidation into full containers, marking and export documentation. Send the supplier list and the purchase orders and our team will review it and come back to you.
What this scope does not cover
Being explicit about the boundary is more useful than being broad about the offer.
- Product quality and specification stay between you and the supplier you appointed. Our scope here is receiving, storage, loading and documents. We record what arrives, in what quantity and in what packaging condition; we do not step into the technical relationship you already hold with your factory.
- We do not renegotiate your prices or terms. The commercial agreement is yours.
- We do not become the supplier. The goods remain yours; we handle them.
- Partial container loads are not part of this scope. The value of consolidation is that several suppliers make up one full container; below that, freight forwarding is the more sensible route.
If what you actually need is for the specification, the factory selection and the production follow-up to be handled as well, that is a different and larger scope — our project procurement service covers it, and the commission model behind it is set out in how China sourcing agents charge.
What to send to set it up
- Your supplier list with contact person and city for each factory
- The purchase orders or order confirmations, so that receiving can be booked against them line by line
- Packing information per item where you have it: carton dimensions, pieces per carton, gross weight, whether the item can be stacked
- Your carton marking scheme, or the fields you want on the marks
- Destination port, and the date the site needs the goods
- Any item that needs special handling: oversized, fragile, stone slabs, glass, or anything that must travel upright
Where the purchase orders exist only as an email thread, a simple line list of item code, description, quantity and supplier is enough to start.
How the sequence runs
- You confirm the supplier list and send the purchase orders.
- We contact each factory to agree collection or delivery arrangements and to obtain packing details.
- Goods are received and booked in against the PO; you get a receiving record per delivery.
- Discrepancies are reported to you as they appear, not at the end.
- Once the load is complete, we issue a consolidation and loading plan for your approval.
- Containers are loaded, marked and booked; documents are issued and sent to you.
The mechanics of combining several factories into one container, including how to decide what travels together, are covered in consolidating products from multiple Chinese factories and, for staged residential work, in mixed-container consolidation for apartment projects.
When this makes sense, and when it does not
| Situation | Consolidation-only scope |
|---|---|
| Several suppliers already appointed, each below a container on its own | Fits well — this is the case the scope exists for |
| Long-standing supplier relationships the buyer wants to keep | Fits well — nothing about the supplier relationship changes |
| Staged site programme, factories finishing at different times | Fits well — storage decouples factory completion from shipping |
| Buyer also needs specification work, benchmarking and production follow-up | Does not fit — that is a full procurement scope |
| One supplier filling a container on their own | Does not fit — the factory can ship it directly |
| Total volume well below one container | Does not fit — project orders here ship as full containers |
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to buy through you to use the warehouse and consolidation?
No. This scope is set up for goods bought from suppliers you appointed yourself. The purchase orders stay yours and the supplier relationships stay yours.
What exactly is checked when the goods arrive?
Receiving is a quantity and packaging record: carton count, carton marks, item codes and quantities against your purchase order, and the condition of the outer packaging on arrival, with photographs. Product quality and specification remain matters between you and the supplier you appointed.
What happens if a factory ships short or ships the wrong item?
It is reported to you with photographs and the purchase order line it relates to, while the goods are still in China and while you still have commercial leverage with that supplier. Correcting it is far cheaper at that point than after the container has sailed.
Can goods be held until the site is ready for them?
Yes – that is one of the main reasons the scope exists. Factories finish at different times, and storage in China means an early factory does not force an early shipment or a part-filled container.
Who is the shipper on the documents?
FBM Sourcing is the shipper and the export documentation is issued under our own name, so the buyer receives one document set for the whole consolidated load rather than one set per supplier.
Working with FBM Sourcing on a consolidation-only scope
FBM Sourcing has been sourcing building materials and FF&E from China since 2014, and has shipped more than 1,000 containers for project buyers in over 20 countries. Most of that work is full procurement scope, but the China-side handling underneath it — receiving, storage, consolidation, marking, documents — is the same machinery, and it can be run on its own for a buyer who has already done the sourcing.
Our clients are developers, general contractors, builders, commercial project owners, interior design and construction companies, and FF&E solution providers. We do not sell to individual homeowners.
Send your supplier list and purchase orders through our project procurement enquiry page and we will review it and come back to you.
