Innolight 300308 (rev ¥65.2bn ttm, +134% YoY) and Eoptolink 300502 (rev ¥35.3bn, +116%) dominate. In 2026 they are capacity-constrained and sell under LTA to hyperscalers — they will not quote small buyers. Anything offered on Alibaba is a broker or grey stock. Note both have Thailand capacity, so origin may not be China.
What Qing asks
One dense message. Five is the whole budget per supplier reply, so the questions that decide comparability go first.
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No category-specific question set yet — only the universal commercial terms below.
Asked on every purchase — commercial and compliance terms
Category-specific, from research rather than generic advice
The 'manufacturer' that is a trading company. On Alibaba and Made-in-China this is the default state for racks, containment, rack PDUs, cabling and small cooling accessories. The distinguishing evidence: (a) 经营范围 in the business licence says 销售/贸易 but not 生产; (b) the 'factory address' equals the registered office and is in an office tower, not an industrial park; (c) no 生产许可 or product certification is held in the seller's own name — certificates show a different company; (d) they are not in any CIOE/China Refrigeration/CDCC exhibitor list; (e) they quote across five unrelated categories. Always cross-check the 统一社会信用代码 on gsxt.gov.cn.
The reverse trap: assuming a trader is always bad. For a 20-line mixed BOM, a competent Guangdong trading company is often the only party that will handle consolidation, export documentation and one invoice. The trap is paying manufacturer margins for trader service, or letting the trader hide who actually made the goods so warranty has no counterparty.
Cooling capacity quoted at undeclared conditions. A '100 kW' CRAH at 15/21C chilled water is a different machine from a '100 kW' CRAH at 12/18C, and a '35 kW' passive rear door at 12C water is not the same product as one at 18C. Chinese quotes routinely omit the conditions and Western buyers routinely compare the headline number.
CDU kW ratings with only one loop temperature. A CDU is defined by primary in, primary out, secondary in, secondary out and both flow rates. A single number is not a specification and cannot be compared across vendors.
Residual air heat in liquid-cooled racks. Vendors state '90% heat captured to liquid' and buyers size the room for 10%. In practice the uncaptured fraction is often 15-25% under real workloads, and a 120 kW rack then dumps 25 kW into a hall designed for 12. Ask for kW of residual air heat per chassis, in writing.
Filled floor loading for immersion tanks. A filled immersion tank can exceed 2,000 kg/m2. Chinese quotes give the dry weight. The building, not the tank, is what fails.
Aluminium substituted for copper in busbar, busway and switchgear. It is legal, it meets the current rating, and it is not what the buyer priced. Specify conductor material and cross-section, and weigh a sample on arrival.
Generated imagery — illustrative of the category, not a photograph of any supplier, facility or product on this platform.