How do I check whether a supplier is a real factory?

The question is not whether a supplier is a factory or a trading company — both can be legitimate. The question is whether what they tell you matches what can be evidenced.

Start with the legal entity. A business licence names the company and its registered business scope, which tells you whether manufacturing is within it. Then check consistency: does the company name on the quotation match the name on the bank account and on the export documents? A mismatch is worth understanding before money moves.

Then look for production evidence rather than marketing claims. Site photographs and video of the actual line, an audit report where one exists, and the ability to answer specific technical questions about how a machine is built. A supplier that cannot describe its own production process in specific terms is usually not running it.

Finally, treat scale claims carefully. "20 years, big factory" is not evidence. What is checkable is whether the company can produce a machine to a specification, explain how, and put its name on the documents that go with the shipment.