Why does a Small Plastic Case MOQ sit at 3,000 pieces?

Answer: The tooling bill needs a base. A 62,000 CNY four-cavity mould spreads to 20.7 CNY at 3,000, and 12.4 CNY at 5,000.

Should the mould be bought outright or amortised?

Answer: Buy outright for a long programme: 16.5 CNY a piece and the tool stays yours. Amortise for a single order.

A quote is 3 CNY cheaper. How do I tell if material was cut?

Answer: Ask for wall thickness and part weight. A 2.0 mm case runs about 285 g; 3 CNY cheaper usually means 1.7 mm, 240 g and 30 percent regrind.

Should I accept 60-day payment terms?

Answer: Compare the 1.2 percent surcharge, about 7.2 percent annualised, with your cost of funds. On 3,000 pieces the gap is 594 CNY.

Skip Unit Price: A Small Plastic Case Quote Has Six Lines

Quick answer: A Small Plastic Case quote cannot be read as one number. Resin, moulding, hardware, packaging, inspection and margin each carry a different basis, so a 16.5 CNY piece becomes 19 CNY at settlement. Ask for the six lines, then settle mould ownership, MOQ and lead time.

Why Unit Price Comparisons Fail
MOQ 3000 and Mould Ownership
A 47-Day Lead Time, Broken Down
Quote Traps and Payment Terms
Factory Visit and Sampling
FAQ

1. Why Unit Price Comparisons Fail

Three quotes come back at 16.5, 14.8 and 19.2 CNY. Read sideways, that tells you who is cheap, not who is expensive. A Small Plastic Case quote has six lines, and different bases make the unit price meaningless.

Line	Per piece	Common gap
Resin	5.9 CNY	Regrind ratio unstated
Moulding	2.6 CNY	Power and depreciation
Hardware	3.2 CNY	Gasket included or not
Packaging	1.1 CNY	Insert and carton apart
Inspection	0.4 CNY	Sample or full
Tax and margin	3.3 CNY	Rate and credit terms

Six lines add up to 16.5 CNY, and changing any basis moves the total. Packaging is the usual omission: a 0.9 CNY insert plus a 0.9 CNY carton, declared as excluded, adds 1.8 CNY at settlement, or 5,400 CNY on 3,000 pieces.

Ask for the six-line quote first.

2. MOQ 3000 and Mould Ownership

The 3,000-piece minimum is not capacity; it is how the tooling bill gets spread. A four-cavity mould costs 62,000 CNY, and that cost has to land somewhere.

Small Plastic Case: white case open on a workshop bench, grey foam trays with four dark boxes and kraft bags, a vice behind

Amortised, the 62,000 CNY divides by 3,000 pieces and adds 20.7 CNY each, taking the quote to 37.2 CNY, which reads as double the neighbouring offer. Bought outright, the mould sits on its own line, the piece returns to 16.5 CNY, and the buyer owns the tool.

Mould term	3,000 pcs	5,000 pcs	Ownership
Outright	16.5 plus 62,000	16.5 plus 62,000	Buyer
Amortised	37.2 CNY	28.9 CNY	Supplier

The tool is rated for 200,000 shots; at 750 a month that is twenty years of work.

3. A 47-Day Lead Time, Broken Down

Suppliers quote 30 days and deliver in 47 because nobody splits the chain. From drawing to warehouse, a Small Plastic Case passes seven stages.

Drawing sign-off, 3 days: wall thickness, draft angle and latch position frozen.
Sampling, 10 days: modify an existing tool, five samples out.
Sample approval, 3 days: assembly, colour, six-face drop from 1.2 m.
Trial shot, 4 days: all four cavities, first article pulled.
Production, 22 days: 3 days moulding, 15 days hardware, 4 days assembly.
Inspection, 2 days: sampling to the agreed plan, report issued.
Logistics, 3 days: 40 pieces per carton, 15.8 kg gross, stacked five high.

Seven stages sum to 47 days; a verbal 30 days usually lands on hardware.

Moulding looks short because a four-cavity tool on a 28-second cycle needs 750 shots, half a day on a 160-tonne press.

4. Quote Traps and Payment Terms

The cleaner the quote, the harder you should look at wall thickness, mould fee and payment terms.

Small Plastic Case: white case sitting ajar on a galvanised rack beam, four latches on the front wall, dark boxes and paper bags inside

Trap	Symptom	Cost
Thinner wall	2.0 mm cut to 1.7 mm	0.6 CNY saved, drop test fails
Mould fee twice	Amortised, then invoiced	62,000 CNY once
Packaging extra	Insert and carton excluded	1.8 CNY per piece
Credit surcharge	60 days adds 1.2%	594 CNY per 3,000
Regrind blending	No cap, 30% mixed in	Colour and strength drop
Vague acceptance	Visual only, no AQL	No grounds to reject

Thinner walls hide best. A 1.7 mm case and a 2.0 mm Small Plastic Case look identical on a desk; load 12 kg for 24 hours and the first bulges 3 mm, the second under 1 mm.

Credit is never free. Sixty days means the supplier funds two months of material, and 1.2% is the market rate, or 594 CNY on a 49,500 CNY order.

5. Factory Visit and Sampling

A Small Plastic Case factory visit needs three checks: press tonnage, tooling ledger, inspection records. A 160-tonne press with a four-cavity tool is the normal pairing; short of tonnage, clamp force drops and flash gets through.

Keep three samples: one for the line, one sealed, one attached to the contract. Mark shot count and cavity number on each.

Four clauses belong in the contract. First, mould ownership: outright or amortised, who holds title, whether the tool can be moved. Second, acceptance: sample size, acceptance number and rejection number as figures, not the word visual. Third, payment terms and the surcharge attached to 60 days. Fourth, liquidated damages at 0.3 percent per day, capped at 5 percent of contract value.

Bring a checklist and copy press numbers, cavity counts and the last inspection report. Check again in three months; mismatched numbers mean borrowed capacity.

Conclusion

Buying a Small Plastic Case goes wrong when the quote is read as a single number. Split the six lines first; a 3,000-piece MOQ carries 20.7 CNY of amortisation, while an outright mould returns the piece to 16.5 CNY. Put all of it in the contract and the traps become published rates, which is the only price advantage a Small Plastic Case buyer can hold onto.

This article discusses only the container (case body) side of specifications and design intent, and does not cover any handling, loading or use of the contents.