A vague inquiry produces a vague price, and the buyer usually reads that price as the best offer available. If the message says only steel coil in 3 mm, the supplier has to decide the grade, the standard, the tolerance, the tonnage and the port before any figure can mean anything, and each of those decisions moves the cost. The reply then comes back as a range, or as a single number resting on assumptions nobody wrote down, and it cannot be compared with the offer from the next supplier. Much of the spread that buyers blame on suppliers starts in the inquiry itself.
A usable inquiry states six things. It names the steel grade together with the standard it is bought to, because S355JR to EN 10025 and A572 Grade 50 to ASTM are different promises and the certificate has to name the one you ordered. It gives the dimensions with the tolerance you can accept, since a plate rolled at the low side of the band and one at the high side do not behave the same way on the same press. It states the tonnage you intend to buy, ideally at two or three volumes so the supplier can show where the price per ton stops falling, and it closes with the surface or finish requirement, the Incoterm with a named destination port and the delivery window you actually need.
The details that decide whether the reply is an offer or an estimate are the ones buyers most often leave out. Ask for the validity date of the price, because steel offers move with mill announcements and a quotation without an expiry is only a snapshot. Ask whether the figure is built from a base price plus extras, and which extras apply to your thickness, width, length, coating weight or alloy content, so that you can see what happens if you adjust the specification. Then pin down the weight basis, theoretical or actual, the payment terms, the lead time measured from deposit or from the credit instrument, and the documents the mill will issue, because a supplier who answers all of that in writing has told you how the order will actually run.
Xi’an Junlin Chicheng Metal Products Co., Ltd has supplied steel since 2003, with more than 20 years of experience, a factory of over 80,000 square metres, annual capacity of 6 million tons and buyers in more than 100 countries, sourcing from partner mills that operate ISO 9001 quality systems, and every order ships with a mill test certificate traced to its heat number. Send the grade, the standard, the dimensions, the tonnage and the destination port, and we will reply with a firm offer that states the validity date, the extras, the weight basis and the lead time, usually within one working day.