Tried to import crucibles from India this week.

So I did a bit of online looking around at silicon carbide and clay graphite crucibles and India seems to be a big supplier of crucibles, mainly to local industry I expect. My Morgan Salamander Super clay graphite crucibles come from India so someone must be making a decent crucible there. I poke around on IndiaMart and this triggers several emails from crucible suppliers and I select MASC Globle Industries as a potential supplier as they have an online catalogue of their product. I also fire off a direct email to their sales staff and get a fast reply and begin to negotiate buying some crucibles and getting them sent via sea. I also ask about buying a sample and getting it sent air freight. Back on Indiamart I get a reply from their sales staff and it's the same guy I'm emailing direct, he quotes 3200 Rupees per ACX22 silicon carbide crucible with the lime green paint job. I reply in thanks and mention I'm already talking to him via email direct and at this point he ghosts me and I get no further replies, just an email telling me he's awaiting my response (already sent two). So 3200 Rupees converts to AUD $57.60 or USD $39.00 for a single ACX22 silicon carbide crucible. I would expect shipping and customs to triple or quadruple that figure. Shipping it Fedex or DHL might be preferable, where they take care of the clearing and may be competitive to using a shipping and customs broker and the shipment spending months on the water.

I had another email from another MASC Globle sales guy, so I just told him I wanted a single sample crucible, pay via credit card and ship via airfreight. Will keep you guys posted....

This would be a CGI rendering of their products:

 

If it helps: I and a friend have ordered a fair amount of stuff from China over the years and I expect India's experience to be similar. I have always shipped DHL, never paid by wire transfer and always had the seller deal with transaction fees, customs etc. So far they have always known the loop holes for getting product to me which means the cost of the product + shipping + customs etc have always yielded a tremendous savings. I've ordered small stuff, big stuff, cheap and expensive. I've also wasted money by this avenue.

Now with that said, if you think you are on to something do exhaustive research because there is likely someone in the U.S.A selling this exact product from the west coat U.S.A. for a minimal markup taking all the risks. My"California vendor" will be different in the AU obviously. Depending on your research and expendable income, don't be afraid to take a chance possibly losing $100. These sellers deal with 1000 emails a day from people looking to make a quick pretend profit, more of a game, so keep that in mind, keep it simple and sell yourself to them...... If they STILL disappear quick like this guy did, he may have been a crook.

Edit: I dunno why I posted all that. Me thinks I missed the point of your post. I got excited I reckon

 

That's all valid advice, at present there only seems to be one supplier of quality crucibles on the East coast of Australia. Recently I bought a single A6 crucible and they told me I'd have to pay extra to have the bare crucible strapped to a wood pallet to protect it during shipping (company policy due to breakages ). I'll email this sales guy a few more times and try to get him to respond hopefully, there was also a rash of "Procurement Officers" from IndiaMart offering to send me one for a fee.

 

When I get them off Amazon, they come shipped for free in a cardboard box with a wee bit of foam. Sometimes they are double boxed. I hope buying direct works out better for you.

 

This whole thing is getting a bit surreal, the sales guy is back in communication but is either not getting my replies or is having an entirely different conversation. He asks for information, I provide it, then he asks for the same information in a different way...all the while ignoring my requests to buy a sample and ship it via air freight. Either emails are getting filtered, there's a language barrier or he's keeping his boss happy (who has also been in touch) while waiting for me to give up.

 

So after some more communication with the sales rep for MASC Global Industries, I had a price of USD $55 for an AC22 silicon carbide crucible and USD $165 for DHL freight. This is comparable to my retail price of about USD $201 for a delivered AHM25 silicon carbide crucible. The website gives some addresses for the factory and the office which do check out OK on Google Earth. The office address is labelled Vesuvius India but Google maps describes it as a "Homewares store". I'm still trying to figure out how to send payment: was thinking of a Western Union money transfer made out to the business name. Does anyone else have a better idea, also I forwarded the last email to their sales email rather than this particular salesman with all the details so far.

It would be good to prove a second source of crucibles outside of the local Australian sellers.

• Office Address: Plot No: 127, Near Water Tank,
  Dediyasan, GIDC-II, Mehsana,
  Gujarat, India -384002
• Factory Address: Survey No. 381, Gokalpura,
  Nadasa-Martoli Road,
  Mehsana, Gujarat, India - 384410
• Sales Email:sales@mascindustries.com

Edit: I missed an invoice from the company with bank account payment info. Will do a Western Union transfer tomorrow.

 

After opening up a foreign currency bank account in USD, I was able to make a direct deposit to their local bank account. I rang a few local Western Union branches and they will only accept Australian dollars for a money transfer, not US dollars for a USD payment...go figure . Anyway the payment has been made and this is where I find out if I've been scammed or not.

 

Sure looks like a reputable company.

 

Something is definitely going on in the 3rd world these days and I haven't been able to put my finger on it. 3years ago, sellers would kiss your ass for a sale and now I'm finding it the opposite. I'm really trying to avoid running another container delivery after the GOATROPE I went through on importing that lift. EVERY time I turned around, it was buy another bond before anyone would even tell you what you owe! Then I got SCAMMED or SCREWED, same thing, from the asshats at customs that demanded to have my 7000lb lift REMOVED from the container for inspection. I have to wonder if they are responsible for some of the damages that happened. The flip side is DHL or UPS and that's when you really find out how expensive those bastards are these days! For my membrane, I estimate a thousand bucks PER ROLL for shipping but I'll have them in a week. So here I sit, trying to kiss some chinese guys ass to run my rolls down to china post and mail me my stuff. Short of jumping on a plane, I'm running out of ideas and patience with these guys. Saw something in the news the other day and the economies in these 3rd world nations are coming to a halt!

 

I think part of the problem is the ease of communications via email, these guys must have a couple of hundred queries that back out when given the price. If I were to bring a pallet of crucibles into the country I'd be sure to use an import agent to handle customs and fees: they know what they are doing and the mere fact they exist tells you something about dealing with customs.

At my local airport was a large English made 1950's turboprop plane that a couple of guys were doing freight runs with. Fifteen years ago I asked them what it would cost to do a freight run into China to pickup machine tools like lathes and milling machines, they said it would be around AUD $50K.

 

I successfully navigated the import process without too much asspain, but I did use some kind of web process that guided me along the way. What I didn't like was there was no one to talk to.
Chartering an aircraft is NEVER a good idea unless you're running cocaine or geoducks. Both of those pay the bucks! lol

 

So the items in the first picture were found when someone answered the distress beacon of the space freighter USCSS Nostromo?.

 

As yet three working days later there's been no word from Masc Global if they have the money, I'll keep you guys posted one way or the other as to how this deal goes down. Bank credit electrons have been known to take days to their destination for some reason. I'd also heard the particular bank I picked for the foreign currency account is very slow to transfer, of the order of days to make it to the destination account.

 

How did you pay them? I went through PayPal when I imported the lift. They can be a good one to have in your corner when things go sideways. Everything else I coughed up was via wire transfers. Those are risky as hell.

 

I was able to do a direct transfer of USD in my account to their nominated account to pay the invoice in USD rather than Indian Rupees. I tried a Western Union transfer at first, as all the Australian Post Offices are agents but I wanted to use some USD I had and they will only accept AUD and convert to USD at a lousy rate. I even found a money exchange service who were Western Union agents and they said it was "impossible". Then I found the bank I have my credit card with would let me set up a foreign currency account, accept USD cash and do a foreign transfer for free. They make their margin with the currency conversion and deposit fees.

 

I emailed the crucible company, the managing director got back to me and acknowledged the payment had arrived last night (3-4 business days) and they were shipping the crucible today and will send the DHL shipping info when ready.

 

You should be in good shape Mark. Pretty terrible when we default to everyone is out to screw us mentality. Just the world we live in I guess. I don't trust online sellers either.

 

The crucible has finally arrived intact and in good condition, packaging was excellent with six layers of corrugated cardboard and soft foam filling the voids with a plastic bag to keep it off the crucible. Top and bottom had 8 layers of corrugated cardboard, total cost was USD $55 with USD $171 for postage and packing for a total of $226. This is AUD $346 delivered versus AUD $300 for an AX-25 size crucible, delivery times are similar with the two side by side in the photo for comparison. I bought direct from the manufacturer and communication was professional and by and large, pretty good, although I did have to prompt for details a couple of times. I used DHL Express and if there is a cheaper method it would bring costs on a par with the local crucible seller.

I'm going to file/cut a small spout in the rim so I can see for myself just what the quality is like and whether they mix in reused bits of fired clay like the cheaper crucibles. It's labelled as Aluminium/Bronze service in an oil fired furnace and thickness is comparable to quality India made crucible I've bought locally.

 

Glad the details worked out. I guess they were not kidding about the color! Let us know your impressions once in use.

 

It looks like green house paint put on with a brush, I guess it's distinctive branding. I've been trying to find similar crucible prices online that aren't the crappy ones to compare it with.