“THE LEAST EXPENSIVE OPTION ISN’T ALWAYS THE SMARTEST BUY. RESEARCH, DUE DILIGENCE, AND WORKING WITH INDUSTRY EXPERTS WILL LEAD YOU TO THE BEST PRODUCT FOR YOUR APPLICATION AND ULTIMATELY, THE BEST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK IN THE LONG RUN.”
Import vs. Domestic
Rigging Products Te cost of imported vs. domestic rigging products is a bit more involved and complicated. You have to determine if you are comfortable with an import product based on the country of origin and also make sure that it meets the same quality standards and specifications as its domestic counterpart. Generally, imported products are cheaper in price, and in many cases, the quality is comparable to products made domestically. For instance, an imported 1/2” x 10’ 6 X 25 swaged wire rope sling would cost about $20.00—the same sling made by a company who manufactures their rigging gear in the United States would charge around $30.00. For companies that import their rigging products, their business is built on offering their customers standard run-of-the mill rigging products in the most popular sizes and configurations. Teir manufacturing locations are built to churn out product in large batches and operate with little to no overhead. By doing so, an import supplier can offer their products at a discounted price. Unfortunately, they can’t offer their customers much in terms of variety or customized solutions. Rigging equipment like engineered below-the-hook devices, custom-sized hardware, and specialty products or high-performance products are much better suited for domestic manufacturers. Companies who make their rigging products in the U.S. tend to have more of an infrastructure in place that is flexible, can make smaller- batch product runs, and can provide customized solutions for their customers. Tey may not be the cheapest
option, but they can offer other value-added services like engineering, R&D, and custom innovations.
How Much Rigging Gear Are You Buying?
Te amount, or the quantity of pieces that you’re buying, can also greatly influence how much you pay for lifting and rigging equipment. If you buy from the right source, you may save more per item, or per foot, the more that you buy. If you do a little bit of research online, you’ll see that some of the companies that sell lifting and rigging equipment offer quantity discounts and some do not. You may see some promotions like “free shipping for orders over $50.00!” If you buy rigging equipment with some regularity, then you know that $50.00 is not a high bar to reach. You may recall from earlier in this article that one 9.5-ton shackle costs around $80 per piece, so you can hit that minimum pretty easily with the purchase of only one part. E-commerce sites that offer deals like free shipping on lifting or rigging equipment seem to target the smaller end-user—mostly contractors or small construction companies that make up a large portion of the rigging buyer’s market. Some other sites utilize a sliding discount based on quantity blocks:
• Receive 3% off 10 items or less • 5% off for 11 to 20 items • 10% off of 21 or more items, and so on...
WIRE ROPE EXCHANGE
SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 2017
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