Free tool · Factory or Trader
Business scope checker
Every Chinese company registers a business scope (经营范围). Factories list what they make; trading companies list what they sell. Paste one to see the split.
How to read a Chinese business scope
The scope is filed with the market regulator and printed on the business licence. Items with 生产 (production), 制造 (manufacturing) or 加工 (processing) are things the company is registered to make; items with 销售 (sales), 批发 (wholesale) or 进出口 (import and export) are things it is registered to sell.
In our test set of supplier companies, 98% of real factories had production items in their scope, and a scope where at least a fifth of the items are production, or the first item is, was the strongest single registry signal for a factory. None of the real factories had a sales-only scope.
Watch for 委托生产 (outsourced production) and 本址不从事生产 (no production at this address): both mean the goods are made somewhere else. A full report adds the evidence a scope cannot show: discharge permits, insured staff, and who the supplier actually buys from.
Get the full verdict on your supplier
A Factory or Trader report reads the supplier's own VAT invoices, permits, staff and court records, then tells you factory, trader or combined, and which factory is likely behind it.
Also free: USCC decoder