We know it’s a very tempting way to make a decent saving by buying plant and machinery direct from China, but there are several things you must be very clear about before pulling the trigger on your order.
The savings aren’t as big as you think
As a rule of thumb, you stand to make a saving of about 30% over buying in China. However, in most cases, around 50% of that saving is going to be immediately eaten up by getting the equipment to comply with local systems and standards. That’s why it pays big dividends to do your homework up front.
The killer laser and more
Recently, we’ve heard some tales of woe from people who’ve bought blind from China.
There was the new machine that we were helping to set up and we discovered that its laser was many times more powerful than was safe for staff to operate. We were able to replace the laser with a New Zealand compliant laser and they were good to go.
Another person had bought a machine that was wired to run at 110 volts, which is the American electrical current. A lot of Chinese gear is wired for America as that’s where most of it goes, so it happens a lot. We adapted the electrical system to NZ and managed to save their investment.
A third imported a large and very costly air conditioning system, which was so poorly made that it was unusable.
Guarding is another problem we see a lot of. We retrofit a lot of guarding to Chinese gear to make it compliant here.
To avoid this sort of thing happening to you, either make sure you understand the specs and check them against all relevant NZ standards before you buy – or what’s probably easier – get in touch with us and let us know what you’re planning so we can make sure you’ll actually achieve a worthwhile saving.
Clint in the UK. Backup on the ground in NZ
Continuing the international theme, Clint is heading to the UK to visit his extended family, and he’ll be away all of October. But never fear. He’ll have his phone with him, and senior members of his highly capable team will be manning the BTS Engineering fort back in New Zealand.
If you want to talk to Clint before he goes, you can get in touch here or call us on 0800 885 383 now.
Don’t miss out. Book your summer maintenance now.
We work long hours every day over the summer, except the four statutory days. Even so, there is only so much time we have to give you, so get in touch with us now and don’t miss out on getting the best people for the job and give us time to order any parts you might need, and arrange consents and approvals.
Call us on 0800 885 383 now.