From enquiry to settlement: the assistant a smaller overseas minerals trader actually needs

Why a deal that looks doable stalls at step one

The overseas seller says “I have a parcel of copper concentrate.” The Chinese buyer asks what grade, what impurities, how many dry tonnes, delivered where, paid how. If the answer is still “good price, large volume, long-term supply available”, the two sides are not yet in the same transaction.

The difficulty in non-ferrous trade is that technical specification, international logistics, customs compliance, financial settlement and commercial credit all happen at once. Any link without data, documents or an accountable person turns into cost at the contract, the shipment or the payment. So we read the word assistant as transaction project manager: someone who makes no unverifiable promise on anyone else's behalf, but turns an enquiry into a comparable quotation, an intention into an executable contract, and payment into something bound to real evidence of title.

Step one: turn the enquiry into something a Chinese buyer can price

A workable enquiry settles at least ten things: product name and form, main grade, payable elements, impurities and moisture, quantity and supply frequency, where the cargo sits, the basis of the mine source or title, export eligibility, the delivery term you want, and the payment method. Assays, stock photographs and past export documents must carry a date and the batch they belong to — one old report cannot be reused indefinitely across different cargoes.

Our first move is not a counter-offer. It is to list what is missing, flag what contradicts itself, and bring unit-grade price, wet tonne, dry tonne, metal tonne and FCA / FOB / CIF onto one comparable basis. A quotation only means something once both sides are discussing the same parcel, the same unit of measure and the same boundary of responsibility.

Step two: negotiation is not squeezing the price, it is agreeing the settlement logic

The final value of a concentrate or a metal is rarely the single number on the quotation. The negotiation has to settle the benchmark price, the quotational period, the payable metal ratio, treatment charges or discounts, impurity penalties, moisture-to-dry conversion, weight tolerance, the exchange-rate source, any cap and floor, and when final settlement happens.

Fairness here does not mean the seller always sells high or the buyer always buys low. It means everyone works from the same sample, the same formula and the same data source. We help produce a written statement of the pricing basis, itemising cargo value, service fee, disbursements and risk provision separately — so nobody quotes low and then recovers margin through port charges, testing fees or opaque penalties.

Step three: diligence runs both ways, not only over the overseas seller

On the supply side we look at company registration, the ultimate controller, who is authorised to sign, mining or production licences, where the material was bought, stock and warehouse receipts, export permits, past shipments, and whether the receiving account is consistent with all of it. A site visit is not a few group photographs — it is matching the plant, the equipment, the feed, the finished product, the storage, the weighing and the paperwork to each other.

The Chinese buyer gets the same treatment: the legal entity, where it actually operates, who is authorised to purchase, its import and payment capacity, the receiving plant, litigation or credit-blacklist exposure, and the bank account. A company being registered proves only that it is registered. It does not prove funding, genuine demand or a record of performing.

Depending on the project we run open-source checks, document review, and video or on-site inspection, and we can bring in testing, legal, customs and logistics partners. Our conclusions separate what is verified, what the counterparty asserts and what is still open — one meeting never substitutes for a chain of evidence.

Step four: turn the offer price back into the real landed cost

What the buyer can accept depends on the full cost once the cargo reaches the Chinese plant. What the seller can accept depends on everything spent before their delivery obligation ends. If both sides only watch the unit price, freight, port charges, detention, insurance, duties or tied-up capital will produce a very large gap.

We work through one cost model line by line: the base cargo value, then inland transport in the export country, storage, handling and export declaration; then sea, rail or road freight, insurance, transhipment and reasonable loss; then, on arrival in China, duty, import VAT, inspection, port and bonded-warehouse charges; and finally financing interest, currency hedging, price volatility and a claims provision.

Tied-up capital cannot be dismissed as “finance charges billed separately”. A basic figure is principal × annualised cost of funds × days outstanding ÷ 365. Where the price references LME, SHFE or another benchmark, the price and currency exposure between the quotational period and the date of payment has to be assessed alongside it. Import VAT may be creditable input tax for a qualifying Chinese general taxpayer, but it still consumes cash at clearance — so the accounting cost and the cash-flow pressure have to be read together.

Step five: the contract has to lock the critical points

FCA, FOB and CIF allocate part of the delivery obligation, the costs and the risk. They do not write your transfer of title, your sampling, your settlement or your treatment of off-spec material. A minerals contract should at minimum lock: the contracting parties and their authority, the specification, the quantity tolerance, sampling and sealing, the umpire and arbitration laboratories, the pricing formula, penalties, what triggers payment, transfer of title and risk, the document list, demurrage or storage charges, return or disposal, force majeure and sanctions, governing law and dispute resolution.

Three points in particular need writing separately: when the risk of loss passes and to whom; when title passes and to whom; and against exactly which documents the bank or buyer pays. They do not necessarily happen at the same moment. For a first shipment we prefer a small parcel taken all the way through sampling, loading, clearance, re-assay and settlement, before anyone decides on a long-term contract.

Step six: check the tax line by line — there is no single all-in rate

The tax question has at least two sides. In the export country: export duty, VAT or refunds, resource tax or mining royalties, licence fees and local service taxes. On the China import side: first fix the commodity code, the product name and the classification of its composition, the origin and any preferential-agreement eligibility; then check that year's duty rate, import VAT and whether consumption tax applies at all.

China's VAT Law, in force from 1 January 2026, applies 13% to imported goods except where 9% or another special case is specified; import-stage VAT is computed as (dutiable value + customs duty + consumption tax) × the applicable rate. For any particular non-ferrous product the actual commodity code, end use, physical form and declaration documents still govern. The 2026 duty rates and interim rates likewise have to be checked against that year's tariff schedule and the rules of origin — last year's table is not a substitute.

For tailings, smelter slag, contaminated secondary material or powders of unclear composition, the solid-waste status, hazardous elements and radioactivity risk must be assessed before shipment. China has banned the import of solid waste by any means since 1 January 2021; once the nature of the cargo does not match the declaration, the exposure escalates from back-tax to return shipment, penalties and potentially criminal investigation.

Step seven: risk control does not stop the deal, it defines when it may continue

Safe and reliable is never a promise. Risk control that works binds the next action to the evidence produced by the last stage: no master contract until the parties and their authority are verified; no final price locked until the representative sample and the re-assay rule are agreed; and the share of payment released must never run ahead of the title documents, transport documents and delivery records.

The payment instrument has to match the state of the goods. For material already in a bonded warehouse, T/T can be tied to inspection and endorsement of the warehouse receipt. For a first sea shipment, a sight letter of credit is worth evaluating. Where prepayment is unavoidable, a performance guarantee, a joint-control arrangement or staged payment can be configured to the project. No single instrument removes all risk; what matters is that the documentary conditions are real, obtainable, auditable and consistent with how title would actually be dealt with.

What we deliver is more than an introduction

Depending on the project, the service can be taken as a single item, a combination or full-process coordination. Typical deliverables: a supply pack a Chinese buyer can evaluate directly; a cost model covering freight, insurance, port charges, declaration, duties and tax, tied-up capital and currency risk; the diligence points and verification results for both sides; a checklist of key contract clauses or a negotiating note; a logistics, clearance and documentation roadmap; and a milestone tracker running from sampling to final payment.

Our role is not to make the final decision in place of the seller, the buyer, customs, the bank, the lawyers or the laboratory. It is to get all of them working from one set of facts, one basis and one timetable.

Four standards for the assistant: safe, reliable, fair, efficient

1. Safe: break party, source, quality, title and payment into points that can each be verified.
2. Reliable: for one parcel, the sample, the data, the contract and the documents line up with each other and can be reconstructed afterwards.
3. Fair: both sides use the same pricing logic, and charges and penalties are transparent in advance.
4. Efficient: enquiry, diligence, costing, contract and logistics advance in parallel, so a deal that cannot close shows itself early.

If you are an overseas mine, processing plant or trader looking at the Chinese market, start by assembling five things: the product and its most recent assay, the quantity and frequency you can supply, the location of the cargo and proof of stock, the exporting entity and title documents, and the delivery and payment terms you can accept. The more genuine and complete the material, the faster a Chinese buyer can be matched and a workable plan drawn up.