How to Check a Chinese Business License on GSXT (Step by Step)

Before you wire a deposit, you can confirm whether a Chinese supplier is a legally registered company, how long it has existed, how much capital it claims, and crucially whether it is even allowed to manufacture steel. All of this sits in a free public database: the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, almost always called by its initials GSXT. Learning to read it is the highest-leverage ten minutes in supplier due diligence.

What GSXT is and why it matters

GSXT is run by China's State Administration for Market Regulation and is the authoritative source for company registration data. Every legitimate company has a record. A supplier that cannot give you a name that matches a GSXT entry is not a company you can hold to a contract. The most common pattern behind a vanished deposit is a trading intermediary posing as a mill, or a freshly registered shell with no manufacturing scope at all.

Step 1: Get the exact legal Chinese name

The English name on a website or quotation is marketing; it does not exist in the registry. Ask for the company's full registered Chinese name and its Unified Social Credit Code — the 18-character identifier that functions like a company's fingerprint. A supplier who hesitates to share these is showing you something. A genuine factory provides them without friction.

Step 2: Search and read the record

Enter the Chinese name or the credit code into GSXT. The record shows the registration date, registered capital, legal representative, registration status, and the registered business scope. Each field tells you something specific, and reading them together is where the verification actually happens.

• Registration date: a company incorporated weeks ago but claiming a decade of export experience is misrepresenting itself.
• Status: look for the equivalent of 'existing' or 'in operation'. A revoked or cancelled status is a hard stop.
• Business scope: this must include the manufacture or sale of steel or metal products. A scope limited to 'trade' or unrelated activities means you are not talking to a manufacturer.
• Registered capital: very low capital paired with very large order claims is a mismatch worth questioning.

Step 3: Cross-check what they told you

The point of the lookup is not just to confirm existence but to catch contradictions. Does the legal representative match the person signing your contract? Does the registered address match the factory address on the quotation? Does the scope support the product they are selling? A genuine MTC, a real factory, and a clean GSXT record should all describe the same company. When they describe different companies, you have found a brokerage chain or a fraud.

A business license proves a company exists. It does not prove the company makes steel, ships steel, or intends to. Read the scope, not just the name.

Limits of the check, and what to pair it with

GSXT verification is necessary but not sufficient. A real, well-registered company can still substitute grade, forge a coating-weight figure, or short-load a container. Pair the registry check with mill certificate verification, a factory audit or video tour, and pre-shipment inspection. For the full sequence, work through the supplier verification checklist on this site, and read the documented cases in the scam library to see how a clean-looking company name was used to win trust before the switch.