Sourcing tin packaging: Türkiye or China?
Masaş manufactures custom decorative tinplate packaging in Tuzla, İstanbul, and exports to more than 50 countries. For a European or Middle Eastern buyer, the practical differences between sourcing here and sourcing from the Far East are distance, documentation and control. Goods reach Germany, Italy or Poland by road in days rather than by sea in weeks. Industrial goods made in Türkiye enter the EU free of customs duty under the EU–Türkiye Customs Union, with an A.TR movement certificate. A standard custom-printed order runs 4–6 weeks, and new tooling about 8 weeks, cut in our own studio. Minimums are 5 000–25 000 pieces per design rather than a full container. And the factory is about an hour from İstanbul Airport if you want to stand in it. The table below is written so you can apply it to any supplier you are considering — including us.
- Lead time
- 4–6 weeks
- EU customs duty
- None
- MOQ per design
- 5 000–25 000
- Manufacturing since
- 1979
| What to compare | Masaş — Tuzla, İstanbul | Ask any supplier |
|---|---|---|
| Transit to Europe | Road freight, typically a matter of days to Western Europe. Sea and air also quoted. | Is the quoted lead time ex-works or delivered, and what freight mode and transit time does it assume? |
| Customs duty into the EU | None on industrial goods, under the EU–Türkiye Customs Union, with an A.TR movement certificate we issue. Import VAT applies as normal. | Which commodity code and duty rate applies to this product, and is the duty inside or outside the quoted price? |
| Production lead time | 4–6 weeks for a standard custom-printed order on a stock shape, from approved artwork. | Does the clock start at the purchase order or at artwork approval, and what happens to the date if a proof is rejected? |
| New tooling | Dies cut in our own studio in İstanbul — roughly eight weeks the first time, nothing on repeat orders. | Who owns the tooling once it is paid for, where is it physically stored, and can it be moved to another supplier? |
| Minimum order | 5,000–25,000 pieces per design, depending on size. Larger tins sit nearer the lower end. | Is the minimum per design, per colourway, or per shipment — and does a second design in the same order count separately? |
| Colour and specification | Pantone-matched, proofed and approved before production runs. You receive the colour and the size you ordered. | Will I get a pre-production sample against the approved proof, and who carries the cost if the delivered goods do not match it? |
| Working conditions | Audited by Intertek against the Workplace Conditions Assessment standard. Report and date sent with a quotation on request. | May I see your most recent third-party social audit report, and what is its date and the site it covers? |
| Food safety | ISO 9001 and ISO 22000. Food-safe interior lacquer on food-contact formats. | Which certifications are current rather than expired, and is there a food-contact declaration for the interior lacquer? |
| Communication | Same-day reply by phone, e-mail and WhatsApp. İstanbul runs one to two hours ahead of Central Europe. | Who will I actually be talking to, in which time zone, and what is the response time when something needs a decision today? |
| Visiting the factory | Aydınlı OSB, Tuzla, İstanbul — about an hour from İstanbul Airport. Visitors welcome. | Is the address a factory or a trading office, and can I visit the production line my order will actually run on? |
Compare landed cost, not unit price
A unit price is one line of a landed cost. The full number also carries freight, insurance, customs duty, the capital tied up in a minimum order you cannot sell in a single season, the months that stock spends in a warehouse, and the reorder you could not place in time when the line sold faster than planned. Two quotations that look far apart on the unit price often finish within a few percent of each other by the time the goods are on a shelf. Ask every supplier for a delivered price, to your door, for the exact quantity you intend to buy — and compare those numbers instead.
Why a shorter lead time changes what you can order
Distance does not only decide when the goods arrive; it decides how much you have to commit to. A long transit forces a large single order placed early, which means guessing a season before it starts and financing the guess. A four-to-six week production run with road freight behind it lets you order less, more often: a first run to test the design, a repeat when it sells, a colour change for the next season on the same tooling. For seasonal confectionery, gifting and speciality food that flexibility is usually worth more than any line on the quotation, because the expensive mistake in this category is not paying a little more per tin — it is holding forty thousand of the wrong one.
The right price for what is in it
A Masaş price is built on things you can verify: dies cut in our own tooling studio, offset printing done in our own hall rather than subcontracted, food-safe lacquering under ISO 22000, and people employed on proper contracts in a factory that Intertek has audited against the Workplace Conditions Assessment standard. Nothing in that list is invisible — you can ask for the certificate, the audit date, and a visit. The cheapest quotation in any category is the cheapest for a reason, and the reason is always somewhere: in the tinplate gauge, in the number of print passes, in the lacquer, in the tolerance on the lid, or in the conditions of the people who made it. It is worth knowing which reason before comparing two numbers.
Social audits: ask everyone, including us
Large European retailers and brands increasingly ask for a supplier’s social audit documentation at onboarding, before a purchase order exists. The legislative picture behind that — the German supply chain act, the EU corporate sustainability due diligence directive — has changed in both scope and timing more than once, so whether any of it binds your own company depends on your size and your market this year rather than on anything we could usefully state here. The commercial requirement is simpler and it is already real: sooner or later your customer’s compliance team asks where the goods were made and under what conditions, and what closes that conversation is a document, not an assurance.
Masaş holds an Intertek Workplace Conditions Assessment, and we send the report with its date alongside a quotation on request. Ask the same thing of every supplier you are considering, in the same words, wherever they are in the world — including us. A supplier who can hand over a current, dated report from a recognised auditor has made your compliance conversation short. A supplier who cannot has told you something too.
Questions buyers actually ask
Is it cheaper to buy tin packaging from Türkiye or from China?
It depends on the quantity and on how you count. On a single very large run with a long planning horizon, the unit price dominates everything else. On the order sizes most brands actually place — five to fifty thousand pieces of a design, several designs a year, artwork changing by season — the decisive lines are freight, customs duty, the minimum you are forced to buy and the capital that sits in a warehouse until it sells. Short-haul sourcing changes those four lines rather than the unit price line. Ask both suppliers for a delivered price to your door for the exact quantity you intend to buy, and compare those two numbers rather than the two unit prices.
Do I pay import duty on tin packaging from Türkiye into the EU?
No customs duty on industrial goods, under the EU–Türkiye Customs Union, provided the shipment travels with an A.TR movement certificate — which we issue with the export documents. Import VAT applies as it would on any purchase and is normally recoverable if you are VAT-registered. Confirm the treatment for your own country and commodity code with your customs agent before you compare prices; it is a short conversation and it changes the arithmetic.
How long does it take to get custom-printed tins from Türkiye?
Four to six weeks in production for a standard custom-printed order on a stock shape, counted from approved artwork. A brand-new shape or size adds roughly eight weeks the first time for the tooling, which we cut ourselves, and nothing on repeat orders. Road freight to Western Europe is then a matter of days. In practice that means a seasonal line can be decided in one quarter and sold in the next, instead of being committed to before anyone knows how the season looks.
How do I check a tin supplier’s working conditions?
Ask for the most recent third-party social audit report and look at three things: its date, the standard it was audited against, and whether it covers the site your order will actually be produced on — not a sister facility. Common standards are the Intertek Workplace Conditions Assessment, SMETA and amfori BSCI. Masaş holds an Intertek Workplace Conditions Assessment and sends it with quotations on request. Put the same question, in the same words, to every supplier on your list, and compare the documents rather than the answers.
What Masaş is
A manufacturer, not a trading company or a reseller. Founded in 1979 and now in its third generation, producing decorative tinplate packaging in Tuzla, İstanbul, with design, die-cutting, offset printing, forming and food-safe lacquering under one roof and a capacity of up to 120,000 tins a day. Certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 22000, audited by Intertek against the Workplace Conditions Assessment standard, exporting to more than 50 countries. If you want to check any of that, the address is on the contact page and the door opens.