How to Spec a Bulk Shade Cloth Order: A Factory-Direct RFQ Checklist

The difference between a quote that lands in your inbox the next morning and one that drags through a week of back-and-forth is usually the first email. Plenty of buyers open with "I need shade cloth — what's your price?", and we have to come back with five questions before we can quote a thing. It isn't us being difficult: every roll we make is built to your order, so the spec you send is the order. Send it complete and you get a clean quote, a confirmed MOQ and a lead time, fast. Here is exactly what to put in that RFQ.

Why there's no price list

Because nothing is pulled off a shelf — it's all made to your spec — there isn't a fixed price list or a standard "one size". That's the upside: you get the exact cloth your job needs. The catch: a vague RFQ gets a vague quote. The tighter your spec, the tighter the number we can put against it.

The RFQ checklist

A shade-cloth RFQ we can quote on the first pass has seven things in it:

• GSM or target shade — your target weight (we run about 60–200 g/m²) or the shade rate you're after (roughly 30–90%). Not sure which? Tell us the use and we'll spec it — our shade cloth GSM guide and shade percentage guide walk through it.
• Size — width and length. Standard widths run 2 to 8 metres, cut to your length.
• Colour — single or two-tone, a standard colour or a custom match.
• Construction and material — flat-wire or round-wire; standard PE or upgraded HDPE. Not sure? Tell us the use and we'll confirm the grade.
• Edge and finishing — specified per order, and the line buyers most often forget. Common things to ask for: a reinforced border, hemmed edges, grommets (eyelets) at a set spacing, or a roped or webbed edge for tensioned installs. Tell us how the cloth is held up and we'll point you to the right finish.
• Quantity and destination port — so we can quote FOB, CIF or EXW from Qingdao or Tianjin.
• Any packing notes — rolls are wound for clean container loading; roll length, weight and how many fit a container are confirmed per order (a light agricultural net packs far more metres per roll than heavy courtyard cloth, so it's set against your spec, not a fixed figure).

A copy-paste RFQ you can send today

Short on time? Fill in the brackets below and send it as your first email — a factory can work from this without a follow-up round.

• Hi — we're sourcing shade cloth for [use / market] and would like a factory-direct quote.
• GSM or target shade — [e.g. 120 g/m², or roughly 50% shade]
• Size — [width] by [length or total metres]
• Colour — [standard colour, or a custom match]
• Construction and material — [flat-wire or round-wire; standard PE or UV-stabilized HDPE]
• Quantity and destination port — [rolls or metres] to [port]
• Incoterm — [FOB, CIF or EXW]
• Edge, finishing or packing notes — [anything the installation or shipment needs]
• Could you confirm the cloth, price, MOQ and lead time? Thank you.

What you get back

With those in hand, we usually come back within a business day with the cloth confirmed — material, GSM, shade — an FOB, CIF or EXW price, the MOQ for that spec, and a lead time. One thing worth knowing up front: MOQ isn't a fixed number. It moves with the GSM, width, colour and how custom the order is, so we confirm it with the quote rather than promise it before we've seen the spec.

FOB, CIF or EXW — which to ask for

One quick call to make before you send: how much of the shipping you want to handle.

• EXW — you, or your forwarder, arrange everything from our door.
• FOB — we get the goods to the port and loaded; you take it from there.
• CIF — we cover freight and insurance through to your destination port.

If you've got a freight forwarder you trust, FOB is usually the cleanest. If you'd rather we handle the legs to your port, ask for CIF.

The two things buyers leave out

Nearly every RFQ that bounces back and forth is missing one of two things: the edge finish (people spec the cloth and forget how it's actually held up) or the destination port (we can't quote CIF without it). Get those two in, and you'll usually get a clean quote on the first reply.

Two ways a spec gets sent half-finished

Beyond the two missing fields above, the same mistakes come up again and again on the spec itself:

• Construction and material collapsed into one line. "HDPE" alone, or "flat-wire" alone, is half a spec — construction (flat-wire or round-wire) and material (standard PE or UV-stabilized HDPE) are two separate choices, and a quote needs both.
• A shade rate with no width. The GSM or shade rate describes the cloth; the width and length describe the order. Send only the first half and the second one comes back as a question before anything can be quoted.

Send us your spec

Send the checklist above — GSM or shade, size, colour, construction, edge, quantity and destination — and we'll come back with the cloth confirmed, a price, MOQ and lead time. Not sure on a line or two? Tell us what the cloth is for and we'll fill the gaps.