Someone in your company asks whether a part could be made in Vietnam, and the job of finding candidates lands on your desk. The first obstacle is not comparing suppliers. It is that you cannot name three. Search in English and you mostly find sourcing agents describing their services and directory pages listing the same few dozen exporters.
This article covers only that first step: building a candidate list from nothing, and cutting it down to the few factories worth a quotation. Judging a factory on the floor and comparing quotations are separate steps, covered in what to check on a first visit to a Vietnamese factory and comparing Vietnamese supplier quotations.
💬 Need a candidate list for a specific part? Send us the drawing outline and volumes and we will tell you which routes are likely to work for it.
Three things to have before you search
Without a drawing, a volume and a material, a factory cannot tell you whether it can quote, and the search produces brochures instead of answers.
- A drawing or specification. It need not be final; a dimensioned sketch and the function are enough to start. “Make one like this sample” gives the factory nothing to plan a process around.
- Expected volume and order pattern. The same annual quantity ordered once or monthly suits different factories. See negotiating minimum order quantities in Vietnam.
- Material and whether a substitute is acceptable. Name the standard and grade, and say whether an equivalent from another standard may be proposed.
With these three, a first enquiry returns “yes, we can quote” or “no”. Without them it returns a company profile.
The six routes, and what each is good for
There are six practical ways to collect names; none is best in general, and the right first door depends on the part and on how much time you can spend.
| Route | Best for | Effort | Language | How far you can trust the listing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Searching in Vietnamese | Reaching domestic workshops with no English presence | Low to medium | Vietnamese | Self-described; needs checking |
| Industry associations and public directories | Building a wide first list by sector | Low | English and Vietnamese | Membership, not capability |
| Trade fairs | Meeting several suppliers side by side in one day | Medium (travel) | English, often with interpreters | Highest — you talk to the people |
| B2B platforms | Filtering by process or equipment | Low to medium | Mostly English | Self-declared; needs checking |
| Industrial zones | Fixing location and logistics first | Medium | Depends on the zone | Location and tenancy are verifiable |
| Referrals and local agents | Experience with similar parts; no time to search | Low | Your language | Comes with someone’s judgement |
A realistic first run combines routes: build a wide list from associations and Vietnamese-language search, check names through referrals, and meet the survivors at a trade fair or on a visit.
Search in Vietnamese, not only in English
A large share of Vietnamese workshops present themselves only in Vietnamese — on their own site, on social media and on messaging apps — so an English-only search sees mainly the exporters that already market abroad.
Use the Vietnamese name of the process, combined with a province or city:
| Process | Vietnamese search term |
|---|---|
| CNC and precision machining | gia công CNC, gia công cơ khí chính xác |
| Plastic injection moulding | ép nhựa, ép phun nhựa |
| Mould and die making | làm khuôn mẫu, chế tạo khuôn |
| Sheet metal and stamping | gia công kim loại tấm, dập kim loại |
| Aluminium die casting | đúc áp lực nhôm |
| Iron and steel casting | đúc gang, đúc thép |
| Plating and surface treatment | xi mạ, sơn tĩnh điện (powder coating) |
Many smaller workshops answer fastest by phone or on Zalo, the messaging app most Vietnamese businesses use. That is a practical point, not a quality signal either way: plenty of capable shops have a thin web presence.
Associations, public directories and industrial zones
Sector associations and industrial-zone tenant lists give you names by process and by place, but listing tells you a company exists, not what it can make today.
The Vietnam Association for Supporting Industries (VASI) has members across moulds and dies, metalworking, electrical and electronic components, and plastic and rubber parts, and is a reasonable way to find names by sector. Industrial-zone management boards and zone operators publish tenant information that lets you approach a location first, which matters if you have logistics constraints.
Two cautions specific to Vietnam:
- Check the publication date. Directories are often left online for years. Treat an old edition as a lead, not as current fact.
- Addresses changed in 2025. On 1 July 2025 Vietnam reorganised its provinces from 63 to 34, and many ward names changed. Addresses in older lists, and on many company websites, no longer match the current administrative map. A mismatch is usually a renaming, not a warning sign; how to read it is explained in how to verify a Vietnamese supplier without visiting.
Trade fairs: the same question to several suppliers in one day
A fair lets you put identical questions to several suppliers on the same day, which by email would take weeks.
Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi host annual exhibitions for precision engineering, metalworking and plastics, with the largest in Ho Chi Minh City usually held at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center (SECC). Dates and venues change from year to year, so confirm them on the organisers’ own sites. Take printed copies of the three items above. Whether you can put a drawing on the table decides whether the conversation ends with business cards or moves to a quotation.
💬 We can prepare the enquiry pack before a fair, or visit the shortlisted factories for you — see sourcing from Vietnam.
Five questions that cut a long list to three
The difficult step is not finding twenty names but deciding which three deserve your time; five questions, asked by phone or one email, do most of the work.
- Which processes do you run in-house? Ask by name: material purchasing, machining, heat treatment, surface treatment, inspection. Outsourcing is normal; not being able to say what is outsourced is the warning.
- Have you made similar parts? The same process at a similar size and material counts, even in a different industry.
- Can you read the drawing? Send it and see whether questions about tolerances and datums come back. No questions at all can mean the drawing has not been read.
- Which certifications, with which scope? For ISO 9001, IATF 16949 or AS9100, check the edition, expiry date, certification body and scope. A certificate can cover a different site or product range.
- How fast and how precisely do you answer? Response time at the search stage is a fair preview of communication during production.
Ask also for an equipment list with machine types, counts and working envelope. It shows whether you are talking to a manufacturer or to a trading intermediary presenting itself as one. Intermediaries can add real value — consolidating small lots, handling language and export paperwork — but you need to know which you are dealing with, because it decides who fixes a defect and who approves a process change.
The first email, and when to search yourself
A first email that carries seven items lets you judge a supplier by the quality of its reply.
| Item | What to include |
|---|---|
| Part | Name, process, application (as far as confidentiality allows) |
| Drawing | Drawing number, file format, whether an NDA is needed first |
| Material | Standard and grade; whether substitution is acceptable |
| Volume | Annual quantity, lot size, order frequency |
| Inspection records | Which documents, which certificate type, when |
| Timing | Target dates for samples and first production |
| Language | English, Vietnamese, or both |
Mind the calendar. In the weeks around the Lunar New Year, replies and new projects slow down across the country, and you cannot tell whether a late answer reflects the supplier or the season. See planning production around Tết.
| Criterion | Search yourself | Use someone local |
|---|---|---|
| Internal time | You can staff the search and the follow-up | The work sits with someone who has another job |
| Visits | You can travel and see factories yourself | Travel is rare or impossible |
| The part | A standard process with many candidates | A specialised process where judging candidates is hard |
You do not have to choose one. Building the list yourself and having someone local visit and check the shortlist is a common split. If the part is moving from an existing supplier elsewhere, read moving a part from China to Vietnam alongside this.
💬 For each project we find, vet and manage the Vietnamese manufacturer that fits the part. Tell us what you need made.
Frequently asked questions
1. Can I search for Vietnamese suppliers without travelling?
You can build and narrow the list remotely: associations, Vietnamese-language search and platforms are all online. Before choosing a final supplier, someone should see the factory. If you cannot go, a third party can.
2. Can I work in English only?
Enquiries and quotations usually work in English. Detailed drawing interpretation and process changes happen in Vietnamese on the factory floor, so state your working language in the first email and confirm important agreements in writing.
3. Will I find factories that accept small orders?
Possibly, but minimums depend on each factory’s equipment and schedule. Give your real volumes at the search stage; it removes unsuitable factories early.
4. Is a company on an association list or public directory safe to use?
Listing helps you find names; it does not guarantee quality or delivery. Use lists to build the pool and the five questions plus a visit to narrow it.
5. Why do company addresses not match the map?
Vietnam reorganised its provinces on 1 July 2025 and many ward names changed. Check the enterprise code on the national registration portal rather than relying on the address alone.
Sources: administrative reorganisation of provinces effective 1 July 2025 (63 to 34 provincial-level units). Checked on 17 October 2026.