What an export inquiry should include
What to include in a mineral export inquiry: the product, the spec limits, the packing, your destination port, and the quantity, so a quote can match the plant.
A quote for industrial minerals goes wrong when the inquiry is a product name and a tonnage. The plant then receives an offer for a grade it cannot run, in a bag it cannot unload, aimed at a port it did not name. Five items are enough to stop that.
Product and grade
Name the mineral and the job. Silica sand for a foundry is not silica sand for flint glass. Kaolin for a plastic body is not calcined kaolin for a coating. Feldspar for tile is not automatically feldspar for glass. If you have a grade code or a previous sheet, attach it. “White powder” is not a grade.
Spec limits
Send the limits you will accept, not a request for “your best quality”. For silica that is usually mesh or AFS, maximum iron, and maximum moisture. For a clay it is whiteness or brightness method, residue, and whether you need plasticity. For feldspar it is alkali and iron. For a refractory it is alumina and the temperature the piece has to survive.
Figures published as typical ranges are a map of the grade family. They are not the specification of a lot, and they are not a certificate. The offer should answer your limits with a current sheet.
Packing
Say how the plant can receive the material. Typical export packing in this trade is 25 kg bags, 50 kg bags, 1 MT jumbo bags, or bulk. Which of those Skylark offers is still to be confirmed, so do not assume the full list is available. If the warehouse has no jumbo-bag discharge, say so now.
Destination port and quantity
Name the destination port yourself. The site does not keep a port list or a country list, and a supplier should not invent one for you. Name the quantity for this shipment and, if you know it, how often you repeat. A trial bag and a monthly container are different offers.
Documents to ask for
Ask for a certificate of analysis on the lot, a packing list, and the commercial invoice. Those are the papers a buyer checks. They are not downloadable from this site, and a page of typical ranges is not a substitute for them.
Send the five items through the quote form. If you already know the mineral, start from that product page so the request is tied to the grade you read. An inquiry that includes product, limits, packing, port, and quantity can be priced. One that includes only a mineral name cannot.
