A buyer's first email to a film factory is usually three lines: what is your price, what is your MOQ, and can I get a sample. The reply that comes back is often a single number per square metre, which answers none of the questions that decide whether the order is workable. A paint protection film order is not priced per square metre in practice — it is priced per roll, and the roll geometry decides how many vehicles it actually covers.
Hangzhou Xingtuxintong Automotive Technology Co., Ltd. manufactures paint protection film and automotive interior accessories in Qiantang District, Hangzhou, under the SUMEI brand. This article sets out what the commercial terms actually look like: how minimum order quantities are structured, what a roll contains, how sampling works and what it costs, and how mixed orders are handled.
The point is not to publish a price list. It is to give a buyer enough structure to write a first enquiry that a factory can answer precisely — and to recognise when a reply is too vague to act on.
Why MOQ is not one number
A film factory quotes a minimum order quantity that reflects what it costs to set up a production run. That cost is not the same for every product, which is why a single MOQ figure for a whole catalogue is either a very high number that protects the factory, or a very low number that will be revised once the order is discussed in detail.
| Product type | Why the MOQ differs | What drives it up |
|---|---|---|
| Standard series film, stock colour and thickness | Already on the coating line; no setup beyond slitting to width | Nothing much — this is the lowest tier in any catalogue |
| Standard series, non-stock width | Requires a slitting change and a fresh core run | Odd widths; small total length |
| Special surface (matte, gloss black, infrared-rejecting) | Different top coat or a different master roll | Colour matching across batches; low demand per SKU |
| Private label with printed liner or custom carton | Printing plates and carton tooling are one-time costs amortised over the run | Number of colours printed; carton size changes |
| Colour change film and custom interior parts | Different process entirely — colour layer, mould, or cut-and-sew | Mould cost; fabric or leather selection |
A practical consequence: if a supplier quotes the same MOQ for a 6.5 mil gloss film and a printed private-label carton, the number is a placeholder. Ask for the MOQ per product family and the reason it changes.
What is actually in a roll
Paint protection film is supplied on a core, wound with a release liner, and the usable area is decided by three dimensions that buyers routinely confuse:
- Width — the slit width of the roll, typically 1.52 m (60 in) for full-width film, with narrower slits available for plotter use or partial panels.
- Length — the wound length, commonly quoted in metres; a 15 m roll at 1.52 m width is roughly 22.8 m².
- Usable length — less than the nominal length, because the first and last metre of a roll are where tension marks and edge contamination concentrate.
The gap between nominal and usable area is the single most common source of a buyer concluding that a roll "does not cover what it should". A 15 m roll is not 15 m of installable film on a full-size vehicle; it is 15 m minus the trimmed edges, minus the pattern nesting waste, minus the failed panels.
| Roll format | Nominal area at 1.52 m width | Typical use | Practical note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.52 m × 15 m | ≈ 22.8 m² | Full-body installation from a plotter pattern | Most common export format; two rolls is a typical first order |
| 1.52 m × 30 m | ≈ 45.6 m² | Full body plus partial panels, or two smaller vehicles | Better per-square-metre cost; higher working capital |
| Slit widths (0.3–1.0 m) | Proportional | Partial coverage: bonnet strip, door cups, sills | Lower waste on partial jobs, higher cost per m² |
Ask for the roll width, the nominal length, the core diameter and the wound-in/wound-out direction on the quote. Those four numbers tell you whether the roll fits your plotter and whether your installer can use the last metre.
Sampling: what a sample proves and what it does not
A sample swatch is a material check, not a performance check. It will tell an experienced installer how the film feels, how it conforms, how the adhesive releases, and whether the top coat is as smooth as claimed. It will not tell you anything about five-year durability, because that is a function of the raw material and the ageing test, not of a 100 mm square.
What a sample is genuinely good for:
- Confirming the series — that the film you receive matches the specification sheet you were sent, including thickness within tolerance. The full parameter table for each series is on the X Series page and the F Series page.
- Conformance test — a small curved panel or a mirror housing will show whether the film stretches without silvering at the corners.
- Adhesive behaviour — whether it releases cleanly from the liner, and whether it leaves residue when lifted and re-applied during positioning. Adhesive and liner construction is covered in adhesive and release liner.
- Top coat feel — the difference between a matte at 22.3 GU and a gloss is immediately obvious by hand and by eye.
Sampling is normally charged, and normally credited against the first bulk order. The two things worth confirming in writing: whether the sample fee is deducted from the bulk invoice or refunded separately, and whether the sample is drawn from the same master roll as the production order. If the answer to the second is no, the sample proves the series exists, not that your order will match it.
Mixed orders and the first-order problem
The most common first order is not a container of one SKU. It is a test of the market: two rolls of the volume series, one of matte, one of gloss black, maybe a roll of colour change film to see whether the demand is there. A factory that only quotes single-SKU MOQs forces the buyer either to over-commit or to split the order across several suppliers and lose the freight consolidation. The logic of which SKUs to carry at all is covered in planning a film range.
Mixed orders are workable when three conditions are met:
| Condition | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| A combined minimum applies to the total order, not per SKU | e.g. five rolls total, any mix of standard series, with a per-SKU floor of one roll |
| MOQ is stated per product family | Standard film and private-label packaging have different setup costs and should not share a number |
| Slitting is planned once | All rolls cut to the same width in one setup; mixed widths increase cost |
For a first order, the honest approach is to say what the order is for — market testing, a specific customer job, a distributor's opening stock — and ask what the smallest workable configuration is. A factory that understands the purpose can often assemble a mixed order that meets its own minimum while giving the buyer the spread of SKUs they need.
Questions to put in the first enquiry
A first enquiry that gets a precise answer contains these items, in this order:
- Product family and series, with the thickness you want — for example X3 at 7.5 mil or F15 at 7.5 mil. If you are unsure which thickness suits your customers, reading a film specification sheet explains what the numbers predict.
- Surface finish: gloss, matte, gloss black, or infrared-rejecting
- Roll width and nominal length, and whether narrower slits are available
- Order composition: how many rolls of which series, and whether a mixed order is acceptable
- Private label requirements, if any — liner printing, carton, instruction sheet language
- Destination market and preferred shipping method
- Whether a charged sample can be credited against the bulk order
Seven questions, and a reply to them gives you a quote you can compare against another supplier line by line, instead of two unit prices that turn out to describe different products.
What the answer should look like
When the reply arrives, it should be specific on five points. If any of them is missing, the quote is not yet comparable.
| Point | Acceptable answer | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| MOQ basis | Stated per product family, with the reason | One number for the whole catalogue |
| Roll geometry | Width, nominal length, core, direction all stated | "Standard export roll" |
| Sample terms | Fee stated, credit mechanism stated, source stated | Free sample with no specification attached |
| Mixed order | Combined minimum plus per-SKU floor | "Any quantity" or "MOQ strictly one SKU" |
| Lead time | Working days from deposit and artwork approval, separately | One number covering stock and custom |
None of this is unusual information. It is the ordinary content of a proforma invoice, and a supplier who has exported before will have it to hand. The value of asking is that it separates the suppliers who quote from a catalogue from the ones who quote from a production plan.
Where to go next
Once the commercial shape of the order is settled, the technical questions take over: whether the film's adhesive and liner suit your climate, how a roll is inspected on arrival, and what the installed cost per vehicle works out to. Those are covered in the other guides in this buying guide collection.
Xingtuxintong manufactures the SUMEI range of paint protection film in Hangzhou — the X, F and D series on Covestro and BASF aliphatic TPU, with 5-year warranty terms — alongside custom car floor mats and the winged headrest. Send the series, quantities and destination through the contact page, and the reply will state the MOQ basis, the roll geometry and the sample terms for that specific configuration. The wider product range is in paint protection film.