China Quality Auditor 2026: Where to Hire, How Much, What They Check

A first-time buyer in Almaty paid USD 328 for a QIMA inspection on a USD 184,000 hydraulic press order. The report came back green. Six weeks later the press arrived in Kazakhstan with a 22 kW motor instead of the 30 kW specified on the contract. The QIMA inspector had ticked “motor present and rotating” but never opened the terminal box to read the nameplate. Replacement cost on the ground in Almaty: USD 11,400, plus three weeks of crane rental and a missed tender deadline. The cheapest china quality auditor on the market did exactly what he was paid to do — run an 80-point checklist. He wasn’t paid to think.

This guide is for buyers who already know they need third-party inspection in China but are confused by the wall of providers, the spread of day rates from USD 180 to USD 1,300, and the fact that every provider’s website says roughly the same thing. We’ll lay out where to find a china quality auditor in 2026, what each channel actually costs once hidden expenses are included, what gets checked under different audit types, and where the brand premium of QIMA, SGS and Bureau Veritas pays off versus where it’s pure overhead.

Everything below is based on quotations our team pulled in the first quarter of 2026 for real projects shipping into Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia and West Africa.

Factory audit in China — what we check on-site, day rate from $60, report in 48 hours.

What a China Quality Auditor Actually Costs in 2026

Most buyers compare day rates and stop there. That’s how you end up surprised at invoice time. An inspector working on the ground in China has four cost layers, and only the first one shows up in the headline price.

Layer one: the day rate. This is what providers advertise. QIMA sits at USD 328 per man-day for standard consumer/light industrial inspections. SGS lands between USD 720 and USD 980 depending on geography and product complexity. Bureau Veritas is in the same band as SGS, USD 780 to USD 1,100. Local independents on platforms like 1688.com or in WeChat networks quote anywhere from USD 180 to USD 320. Agent-based inspectors with engineers on staff (our own model included) sit at USD 350 to USD 650.

Layer two: travel and logistics. Most Chinese factories that export to Central Asia and Russia are clustered in Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Hebei. None of the inspectors live next door to all of them. A factory two hours from a Tier-2 airport costs the inspector a USD 80 to USD 150 domestic flight, a hotel night at USD 50 to USD 90, and USD 30 to USD 60 in taxi fare. QIMA charges these as separate line items. SGS and BV usually bundle them into the day rate, which is part of why their headline numbers look high.

Layer three: language. An inspector who speaks fluent English is already a premium hire. One who can write a report in Russian is rare and expensive. QIMA and the local independents almost never write Russian reports. SGS will assign a Russian-language coordinator at USD 120 to USD 140 per day. If you want a report a Kazakhstan or Uzbek customer can show their procurement committee without translation, factor this in upfront.

Layer four: scope creep. This is where the cheap providers turn expensive. QIMA’s USD 328 buys you 80 checklist items. If you want the inspector to open the electrical panel, verify serial numbers against the EAC certificate, pull mill test certificates for the steel, or witness a hydrostatic test, those are bolt-ons. By the time you’ve added what an experienced buyer actually needs, the QIMA bill is closer to USD 540.

Here’s the comparison we use internally when a client asks “who should I hire for this audit?”:

Provider type	Headline day rate	Realistic all-in cost	Russian reporting	Best fit
QIMA (formerly AsiaInspection)	USD 328	USD 480-580	No (or paid translation)	Light industrial, repeat orders, English-only buyers
SGS	USD 720-980	USD 920-1,180	Yes, +USD 120/day	Bank-financed projects, brand-conscious end customers
Bureau Veritas	USD 780-1,100	USD 1,010-1,330	Yes, +USD 140/day	Oil & gas, heavy machinery, regulated industries
Intertek	USD 690-920	USD 870-1,120	Limited regions	Consumer electronics, retail private label
Local independent (1688/WeChat)	USD 180-320	USD 430-570	No	Repeat inspection of a known factory, small-ticket orders
Agent-based engineer (XILINK style)	USD 350-650	USD 350-650 (all in)	Yes, native to scope	Central Asia / Russia buyers, EAC and TR CU compliance

A few things that don’t appear in any provider’s brochure.

QIMA is built for volume. Their pricing model assumes consumer goods buyers running 50+ inspections a year. The 80-point checklist is genuinely well-designed for textiles, toys, small appliances and packaged goods. For a one-off USD 200,000 hydraulic press, it’s the wrong tool. The inspector is competent, but his training is in fast checklist execution, not in pulling apart a complex industrial system.

SGS and BV write reports for banks. If your purchase is being financed, your bank or your trade insurer (Sinosure, Coface, Atradius) often requires a “recognized international body” report. SGS and BV are the path of least resistance there. The reports are rigorous on the items they cover but rarely go off-script. We’ve seen SGS reports approve factories where the production line shown to the inspector was a different building from the one our client’s order was actually being made in.

Local independents are a lottery. The good ones are former QC managers from large Chinese OEMs, with 15-20 years of experience and a sharper eye than any branded inspector. The bad ones are sales reps with a camera. Three out of every five local independents we’ve test-hired turned out to be the second category. If you go this route, demand three previous reports as samples and call two of those previous clients before you commit.

Factory-paid inspectors are not inspectors. If a Chinese supplier offers you “our certified quality inspector, free of charge,” what you’re getting is a marketing document with a clipboard. We’ve seen factory-paid inspectors sign off on machines that arrived missing entire subsystems. Anyone whose paycheck comes from the seller cannot, by definition, audit the seller.

Where to Find a China Quality Auditor: Five Channels Compared

Knowing the price layer is one thing. Finding the right person is another. There are essentially five channels for sourcing inspection capacity in China in 2026, and each one has a different strike zone.

Channel 1: Direct contract with the global brands (QIMA, SGS, BV, Intertek, TUV). You go to their website, fill out a form, and a sales rep gets back to you within 48 hours. Onboarding takes 5 to 7 business days because they need to set up a project code, sign an NDA, and assign a regional account manager. Once you’re onboarded, repeat inspections are fast. The checklist is standardized; deviations from it cost extra. This channel is the right answer when your buyer profile is “large company, formal procurement, finance department wants a brand name on the report.”

Channel 2: Alibaba Trade Assurance Inspection Service. Built directly into the Alibaba order flow. You pay through Alibaba, the inspector is dispatched from a pool, and the report uploads to your order page within 72 hours. Cheap (around USD 300-450 all-in), fast, and the integration with the order means the inspector has your spec and your PO in front of him. Downside: the pool is mixed quality. You don’t get to choose your inspector, and you can’t request the same person for a follow-up. This works for repeat checks of a factory you already trust. It does not work for first-time qualification of a new supplier on a serious order.

Channel 3: Local independents via 1688.com, WeChat groups, or LinkedIn. This is the cheapest channel and the most variable. 1688.com has a “factory inspection” category with hundreds of listings ranging from USD 80 to USD 350 per day. WeChat industry groups (you need a Chinese sponsor to join) have inspectors who post their availability daily. LinkedIn has a small but growing number of former big-firm inspectors who went freelance after 10-15 years and charge USD 250-400 per day for genuinely senior work. The lottery problem applies hard here. Vet aggressively or skip.

Channel 4: Industry associations. The China Machinery Industry Federation (CMIF), the China Electrical Equipment Industrial Association (CEEIA), the China Construction Machinery Association (CCMA) and similar bodies maintain rosters of accredited inspectors specialized in their sectors. Pricing is mid-market (USD 400-700 per day), quality is consistently good, but the working language is Mandarin. A Kazakhstan or Uzbek buyer needs a coordinator to translate findings. This is a strong choice for niche heavy industrial categories where you want depth over polish.

Channel 5: Sourcing agents with in-house inspection teams. Agents like XILINK, Dragon Sourcing, Asia Quality Focus, or smaller regional players who employ engineers directly. The advantage is that the inspector already knows your project, your spec, your destination market’s compliance regime, and the factory’s reputation. The risk is alignment of incentives — if the agent is also taking a commission from the supplier, the audit is compromised. Always ask explicitly: “Are you receiving any payment from this factory?” before signing. A clean agent will answer that question without flinching.

Channel	Time to dispatch	All-in day cost	Specialization depth	Best fit
Global brand direct (QIMA/SGS/BV)	5-7 business days	USD 480-1,330	Broad, checklist-driven	Bank-financed orders, brand-required reports
Alibaba Trade Assurance	24-48 hours	USD 300-450	Shallow, generic	Repeat inspection of trusted factories
1688/WeChat freelancer	24-72 hours	USD 200-450	Variable (lottery)	Small orders, English-speaking buyers willing to vet
Industry association roster	3-5 business days	USD 400-700	Deep, sector-specific	Heavy machinery, electrical, niche compliance
Agent with in-house team	24 hours	USD 350-650	Custom, project-aware	Central Asia / Russia / Africa buyers, multi-touch projects

The single most common mistake we see: buyers picking a channel based on price alone. The right question is not “who’s cheapest” but “what do I need this report to do?” If the report needs to satisfy a bank, only Channel 1 works. If it needs to catch real production defects, Channels 4 and 5 outperform Channel 1 at lower cost. If it’s a routine repeat check, Channel 2 is fine. There’s no universal answer.

What a China Quality Auditor Actually Checks: Four Audit Types Decoded

The word “audit” gets thrown around as if it means one thing. It doesn’t. There are four distinct audit types you can hire an inspector to perform, and each one looks for completely different problems. Buying the wrong type is the second most common cause of expensive surprises after no-audit-at-all.

Factory Capability Audit (also called Initial Factory Evaluation)

This is the once-per-supplier audit you do before you place your first order or before you commit to a long-term relationship. It answers the question “is this factory who they say they are?”

The auditor spends a full day on site and checks: legal registration documents (business license, USCC code, export license), physical infrastructure (machinery list with model and year, calibration records, total floor space), quality system documentation (ISO 9001 certificate verified through the issuing body’s database, internal QC procedures, last three audit reports from other customers if available), labor force size by shift and by department, recent export shipping records (we always ask for the last 18 months of bills of lading), and financial health indicators (paid-up capital, anomalous business registry status check on gsxt.gov.cn).

Typical price: USD 500-900 all-in, single visit. Output: a 25-30 page report with a recommendation of “approved / approved with conditions / not approved.” This is the audit type SGS and BV charge the most for and execute well. It’s also the one local independents are weakest on, because verifying registration documents and reading mill certificates takes specialized training.

A factory capability audit is not a quality check on a specific order. It’s a yes/no on whether you should be doing business with this entity at all.

During Production Inspection (DUPRO)

Performed when the production run is 20% to 60% complete. The point is to catch systemic problems before the entire batch is finished, when corrections are still cheap.

The auditor checks: actual production progress against the contracted schedule, raw material consumption (does the steel coming out of the warehouse match the mill certificates that came in?), workmanship on partially completed units, in-process QC records, and any non-conformances flagged by the factory’s own QC team. The deliverable is a snapshot of “if this factory keeps doing what they’re doing right now, what will the final shipment look like?”

Typical price: USD 350-650 per man-day. DUPRO is where experience pays off most. A senior inspector can spot in 90 minutes whether the factory will hit the spec at the end of the run. A junior one fills out the form correctly and misses the warning signs.

We use DUPRO heavily on orders above USD 100,000 and on any project where the factory is new to us. On a recent USD 380,000 order of asphalt mixing plant components for a road project in Karaganda, our DUPRO inspector caught that the heating oil tank welds were being done by a single welder doing 14-hour shifts. We pushed the factory to bring in a second qualified welder before the work continued. Two months later, the plant commissioned in Kazakhstan with zero weld defects.

Pre-Shipment Inspection (PSI)

The most common audit type by volume. Performed when the production run is 100% complete and goods are packed and ready to ship. The auditor checks a statistical sample (typically AQL Level II, with sample sizes from MIL-STD-105E) for visual defects, dimensional accuracy, function tests, packaging integrity, marking and labeling, and document completeness.

Typical price: USD 328 (QIMA) to USD 700+ (BV) per man-day. PSI is what most people mean when they say “inspection.” It’s also where the brand premium adds the least value, because the work is heavily checklist-driven and standardized. A competent agent-based inspector at USD 450 will produce a more useful PSI report than QIMA at USD 328, simply because he’ll have read your contract beforehand and will check the things that actually matter to your specific order rather than running the generic 80-point list.

PSI cannot catch hidden defects (corrosion that emerges in 6 months, fatigue that emerges in 1,000 hours). It catches what’s visible at the time of inspection. For machinery, this means PSI is necessary but not sufficient — you also want a function test, which most providers charge as an add-on.

Container Loading Inspection (CLI)

The shortest and cheapest audit type, and the most underrated. Performed at the moment the goods are being loaded into the shipping container. The auditor verifies: container condition (no holes, dents, water ingress, working seals, correct ISO number), loading sequence and stowage (heavy items at the bottom, fragile items secured), quantity loaded matches the packing list, and seal number recorded for the bill of lading.

Typical price: USD 250-400. CLI is what saves you when a factory tries to substitute units between PSI and shipment. We’ve seen factories pass PSI with the contracted units and then load a mix of contracted and substandard units into the container. CLI prevents this. On orders where the unit value is high (think medical equipment, specialty machinery, electrical control systems), CLI is a USD 300 insurance premium against a USD 50,000 substitution loss.

Audit type	When	Cost	What it catches	What it doesn’t catch
Factory Capability Audit	Before first order	USD 500-900	Fake factories, financial trouble, missing licenses	Production-specific defects
During Production (DUPRO)	20-60% complete	USD 350-650	Material substitution, workmanship issues, schedule slippage	Final-stage defects
Pre-Shipment (PSI)	100% complete	USD 328-700+	Visual defects, dimensional errors, packaging issues	Hidden/long-term defects, post-PSI substitution
Container Loading (CLI)	At loading	USD 250-400	Substitution at shipment, wrong quantities, container damage	Anything not visible at loading

For a serious order, the right answer is rarely “one audit.” It’s usually a sequence: capability audit before the contract, DUPRO mid-production, PSI after completion, CLI at loading. Total cost on a USD 200,000 order: roughly USD 1,800 to USD 2,400, or about 1% of contract value. Comparable to a sane insurance premium.

Where the Brand Premium Pays Off — and Where It Doesn’t

QIMA, SGS, BV and Intertek charge premium prices and most of the time the value is real. Sometimes it isn’t. Here’s where we see the line.

The brand premium pays off when:

The report is going to a bank, an export credit insurer, or a regulated end customer. SGS on the cover page opens doors that a 1688 freelancer’s report won’t, regardless of which one is technically deeper.

You’re inspecting in a remote province where the local independent network is thin. The big four have salaried inspectors in every Chinese province. A local independent in Inner Mongolia or Yunnan is hard to find and harder to vet. Paying SGS USD 1,000 to send someone is sometimes the only practical option.

The product is a regulated category (medical devices, food contact, children’s products, electrical safety). The big four maintain in-house regulatory specialists who know the EU CE, US CPSC, EAC, GB standards backward. A general-purpose freelancer doesn’t.

You need parallel inspections at five factories in the same week and you don’t have the bandwidth to coordinate five separate freelancers. The big four operate as a service and absorb the coordination overhead.

The brand premium does not pay off when:

You’re doing routine PSI on a factory you’ve already qualified. The work is checklist-driven, the brand adds nothing the freelancer doesn’t.

You’re sourcing from Central Asia / Russia / Africa and your buyer needs an EAC- or GOST-aware report. The big four are stronger on EU and US compliance. They’ll happily check your TR CU markings, but their inspectors don’t catch the subtle errors a regionally-aware agent would catch — like a TR CU 010/2011 declaration that lists a different model number than the nameplate, or a Sinosure-eligible export that’s missing the BL certification trail.

The order value is below USD 30,000. A USD 1,000 SGS visit on a USD 25,000 order is 4% of contract value, double the rule of thumb. A USD 450 agent-based inspection is 1.8%, which is sane.

You need flexibility on scope. The big four will check what’s on the contract. Adding a non-standard item (“please pull the gear oil sample for lab analysis”) is a paperwork process and a price increase. Smaller providers and agents will just do it.

The single most useful framing question: who’s going to read the report? If the answer is “my bank, my insurer, or a regulated end customer,” go branded. If the answer is “me, my CTO, and our installation team in Almaty,” go agent.

Two Real Cases: Where the Right China Quality Auditor Saved Real Money

Theory is cheap. Here are two real engagements from our 2025 books, with numbers.

Case one: USD 162,000 high-pressure pump order, Shanxi factory, August 2025. A mining contractor in Almaty ordered 14 high-pressure pumps with 75 kW electric drives for a copper mine in the Balkhash region. The factory had good references from two prior Kazakhstan customers. Standard pre-shipment inspection requested.

Our inspector arrived two days before scheduled loading. First problem: serial numbers on the motor nameplates didn’t match the proforma. Factory explanation: “technical re-registration.” Second problem: when the inspector pulled mill certificates for the pump casings, six of the fourteen units had been built from 304 stainless steel instead of the contracted 316L. In Balkhash mine water chemistry, 304 fails in 8-14 months versus 316L’s expected 5-year service life. Third problem: the factory’s hydrostatic test bench couldn’t generate the 1.5x rated pressure required for verification. Maximum it could produce was 1.1x. This meant the test certificates for the previous shipments to other Kazakhstan customers were probably also fictional.

Buyer pulled the order before the wire transfer of the balance payment. Inspection cost: USD 580. Avoided loss: USD 162,000 plus several months of mine downtime waiting for re-orders. After this episode, the buyer made factory capability audits mandatory for any order above USD 30,000. Eight months later, zero commissioning failures.

Case two: USD 47,000 conveyor system order, Shandong factory, March 2025. A grain terminal operator in Shymkent ordered 28 belt conveyors. He chose to skip inspection because the unit price was low and the factory had a clean Alibaba record. The conveyors arrived in Almaty nine weeks later. Problems: tensioning station welds with incomplete penetration, rollers assembled with the wrong bearing series, and 11 units shipped with 5.5 kW motors instead of the contracted 7.5 kW. Repair cost on the construction site: USD 47,000. Schedule impact: one month of grain silo commissioning lost.

This was the buyer who later hired us for the high-pressure pump order. He didn’t make the same mistake twice.

The lesson is unromantic but consistent: a USD 450 to USD 600 china quality auditor pays for himself the first time he catches anything material. Across 50+ orders we’ve inspected for Central Asian buyers in 2025, the audit caught at least one substantive issue 31 times. Median value of the issues caught: USD 8,400. The math doesn’t require any heroic assumptions.

How to Hire a China Quality Auditor: A Five-Step Buyer’s Process

If you’re starting from zero, this is the sequence we recommend.

Step 1: Define what the report needs to do. Is it for a bank? An end customer? Internal use? The answer determines whether you go branded (Channel 1) or independent/agent (Channels 4-5). Don’t skip this step. Most mismatches between buyer and provider happen because nobody asked this question upfront.

Step 2: Pick the audit type, not just the provider. A capability audit, DUPRO, PSI and CLI all serve different purposes. For a first-time supplier on an order above USD 50,000, you want at least capability + PSI. For a recurring supplier, PSI alone is fine. Match the audit type to the actual risk.

Step 3: Get three quotes. Always. Even if you’ve already decided you want SGS, get a quote from a smaller competitor and an agent. The price comparison tells you what the market rate actually is. The quotes themselves often reveal scope differences — “wait, SGS doesn’t include hydrostatic testing? The agent does for less?”

Step 4: Ask the alignment question explicitly. If you’re going through an agent, ask: “Are you receiving any payment, commission, or kickback from the factory?” A clean agent will answer no without hesitation and put it in writing. Anyone who waffles is conflicted, and the audit will be too. This single question filters out 80% of the bad agents.

Step 5: Read the first report carefully and ask follow-up questions. A good inspector welcomes questions. A bad one resents them. The first time you hire someone new, treat the first report as a test. Did he find anything specific? Are the photos timestamped and geotagged? Did he answer the questions in your spec or did he just run his generic checklist? If the answers are wrong, change providers before the next inspection, not after the next failed shipment.

If you want help with this process specifically for orders shipping into Central Asia, our complete on-site supplier checklist covers the on-site detail work. Our overview of factory audits in China walks through the full audit lifecycle, and the China factory audit guide for Central Asia buyers covers the cross-border logistics of getting an inspector to the right place at the right time.

FAQ: What Buyers Ask Us About China Quality Auditors

How much does a china quality auditor cost per day in 2026? Headline day rates run from USD 180 (local freelancer) to USD 1,300 (Bureau Veritas in heavy industrial). Realistic all-in costs land between USD 350 and USD 1,300 once travel, accommodation, language and scope items are included. For a typical Central Asia buyer on a mid-sized industrial order, USD 450-650 per day buys a competent agent-based engineer with a Russian-language report.

Can I just use the factory’s own inspector? No. A factory-paid inspector is a marketing document with a clipboard. Anyone whose paycheck comes from the seller cannot honestly audit the seller. Even if you trust the factory, the structural conflict makes the report worthless to your bank or your insurer. Always hire your own inspector or one paid through an agent who isn’t taking commission from the factory.

How long does an inspection report take to deliver? Standard turnaround is 48 to 72 hours after the on-site visit. The big four (SGS, BV, QIMA, Intertek) can take 5 to 10 business days because of internal review processes. A 24-hour rush report is possible from agents and freelancers but the analytical depth suffers — photos don’t get cross-checked against contract specs, and the inspector’s notes get written from memory. If the report arrives the same day as the visit, it’s a template that was filled in en route, not a real analysis.

Can a china quality auditor issue a GOST-R or EAC certificate? No. Auditors are inspectors. They verify and document facts. Certification under GOST-R (Russia) or EAC (Eurasian Economic Union) is issued by accredited certification bodies, not by inspectors. An inspector can verify that an existing certificate is real, can pull samples for laboratory testing, and can witness certification testing — but he doesn’t sign certificates. If anyone offers you “all-in audit plus GOST-R certificate for USD 800,” it’s a fraud.

Is remote/video-based inspection a real option? For repeat inspection of a factory you already trust, video inspection works. For first-time qualification of a new supplier on a high-value order, it doesn’t. Video misses smell of fresh paint, weight of components, temperature of weld seams, real production line cadence, and most importantly the inspector can’t randomly redirect the tour to areas the factory didn’t plan to show. Physical presence is non-negotiable for any audit that needs to defend against active concealment.

How do I verify my inspector actually went to the factory? Demand timestamped, geotagged photos. Demand a 5-minute uncut video walkthrough of the production floor. Demand a signed factory entry log with timestamps. Serious providers offer this by default. If your inspector resists, he probably wasn’t there or was there for 30 minutes. We’ve seen freelancers post other people’s photos to fake inspections — the geotag check catches this immediately.

How many inspections do I need on a single order? Below USD 30,000: one PSI is usually enough. USD 30,000 to USD 100,000: capability audit before the contract plus PSI before shipment. USD 100,000 to USD 500,000: capability + DUPRO + PSI + CLI, four touchpoints. Above USD 500,000 or with mandatory commissioning dates: add a fifth touchpoint at 80% production, often coordinated with engineering buy-off. Total inspection cost runs 1.5-2.5% of contract value at the high end, which is cheap insurance.

What’s the difference between QIMA and SGS for someone shipping to Kazakhstan? QIMA is faster and cheaper but writes generic English reports and has limited Russian-language coordination. SGS is slower and more expensive but produces reports your Kazakhstan customer’s procurement committee will accept without question. For consumer goods and small industrial, QIMA is usually fine. For machinery, electrical equipment, or anything that has to satisfy EAC/TR CU compliance scrutiny, SGS or an agent with EAC fluency is the better choice.

Should I hire the same inspector for repeat orders or rotate? Hire the same one for the first 3-4 inspections at a given factory, then rotate. Continuity helps catch trend changes (workmanship sliding over time, new shifts being added with untrained workers). Rotation prevents the inspector from getting too comfortable with the factory and starting to overlook things. We typically rotate every fourth visit.

What to Do Now if You Have an Order in Production

If you’re reading this and you have a Chinese order currently in production, three quick checks.

First, did you hire any inspection at all? If not, hire a PSI before the balance wire goes out. USD 450 saves you from finding out the truth in your destination port.

Second, does your inspector know your spec? Forward your contract and your detailed specification sheet to him 48 hours before the visit. Anyone who shows up with a generic checklist will give you a generic report.

Third, ask the alignment question. If you’re going through an agent, ask in writing whether they take any compensation from the factory. The answer should be unambiguous and on paper. If it isn’t, find a different agent before the inspection happens, not after.

The cheapest mistake is the one you don’t make. The cheapest inspection is the one that prevents the bad shipment from leaving the port. Everything after that — claims processing, replacement orders, downtime at the construction site — is more expensive by an order of magnitude.

If you’d like a quote for inspection on an active order, write to us at [email protected] with the factory address, product category, and target shipment date. We’ll come back within 24 hours with scope and pricing — and we don’t take payment from any factory.