Renjie Li

I handle export sales for a steel tower factory that has been running since 1994. Most of my working day sits between two things: a customer's drawing and the shop floor that has to turn it into galvanized steel.

That means reading line data before it becomes a price. Voltage class, span, conductor type, wind zone, ice load, tower height, the standard the buyer is designing to. When one of those is missing, the quotation is a guess, and a guess costs somebody money later. So I usually come back with questions before I come back with a number.

What I actually do on an order

• Drawing review. Check that the tower drawing, bill of materials and technical specification agree with each other. They often do not, and it is cheaper to find that out before cutting steel.
• Quotation. Build the price from steel weight, coating class, fabrication hours, packing and freight terms. FOB, CFR or CIF from Tianjin, Qingdao or Shanghai.
• Production follow-up. Track the batch through cutting, bending, welding, galvanizing and inspection, and tell the customer where it stands instead of waiting to be asked.
• Packing and documents. Bundles marked by tower number, bolt lists per bundle, packing list, mill certificates, coating thickness reports, and the shipping documents that clear customs.
• Site questions. When a crew on the other side of the world finds a part that does not line up, I am the one who gets the photo.

Why I write the guides

Most enquiries I answer repeat the same twelve questions. What steel grade do you use. How thick is the galvanizing. Can you build to ASCE instead of GB. What does a 40 ft container hold. How long from drawing approval to shipment. Instead of typing the same reply, I put the answers in writing, with the standard numbers attached so a buyer's engineer can check them.

The articles are reviewed against the design documents and standards they cite: IEC 60826, ASCE 74, AS/NZS 7000, EN 1090, ISO 1461 and ASTM A123 among them. Where our plant cannot meet a requirement, for example an EN 1090-2 execution class that needs a factory production control certificate we do not hold, the article says so instead of implying we can.

How to reach me

Email is the most reliable route for drawings and specifications: [email protected]. WhatsApp works for quick questions and site photos: +86 198 6888 8177. If you send a drawing, add the project country and the standard you are designing to. That single line saves a round of emails.