Suppliers answer complete enquiries in two days and vague enquiries in two weeks — if at all. The difference is five lines of information, and it is the cheapest way to speed up your own purchasing.
1. The product, by standard and grade: "cold rolled coil, DC01, EN 10130" beats "CR sheet" by a week.
2. Dimensions and tolerance: thickness, width (or OD and wall), and whether tolerance is to the standard or tighter.
3. Quantity: in tonnes per month, and for the first shipment. "Trial 1 container, then 3/month" gets better prices than "how much?"
4. Destination port. Freight is often 10–20 % of the landed price of coil products.
5. Anything unusual: special packing, your shipping marks, third-party inspection, coating weight for galvanized, core loss for electrical steel.
The destination port plus the Incoterm. "CIF Callao" or "FOB Qingdao" halves the questions a supplier must ask before quoting. If you are unsure which Incoterm suits you, say so — a good exporter will propose one and explain the risk transfer in one paragraph.
Ask which mill will produce the material. The answer tells you the realistic quality tier, the anti-dumping situation in your market, and how seriously to treat the lead time. A quotation that names its mill is a quotation you can verify.
A serious reply contains: price per tonne with the Incoterm, validity period, lead time in weeks, payment terms, and the producing mill. If any of those five is missing, ask for it before comparing prices — an invalidity-period price is not a price, it is bait.
Send the grade, the size and the quantity — you get a costed quotation within two working days.