Most payment terms are 30% deposit, 70% against shipping documents. That means your real inspection window is small. Once the container reaches your port and you’ve paid, your leverage is gone.
Here’s the routine we recommend to every new customer.
1. Check the seal before anything else
Photograph the container seal number and compare it with the documents. A broken seal is your insurance case, and you need proof.
2. Test the moisture content
Take a moisture meter and test the edges of sheets from at least three different pallets. You’re looking for 8–12%. If several readings come back above 14%, the boards were packed wet or stored badly. That shipment will warp within months — raise it immediately, before you pay the balance.
3. Measure the thickness
Pull one sheet from the top of each pallet and measure with a caliper in five spots. A tolerance of ±0.3mm on an 18mm sheet is normal and acceptable. Beyond that, you have a quality dispute worth making.
4. Inspect the surface
Check for scratches deeper than the melamine layer, bubbles between paper and core, and chipped corners. On a full container, inspecting 5% of the sheets across different pallets gives you a fair picture. Don’t just check the top sheet — middle sheets get hidden damage.
5. Compare the color
Pull sheets from different pallets and lean them against each other in daylight. Slight variation between batches is normal in this industry, but the difference shouldn’t be obvious from two meters away. We keep a reference sample from every export batch for twelve months, so if your delivery drifts from the approved sample, we fix it.
None of this takes long. Thirty minutes with a meter and a caliper protects the 70% you haven’t paid yet.