Product formats
Fire Starter Formats Compared
Six formats sit on the same shelf and are bought by the same importer, yet they do not burn the same way and they do not ship the same way. Here they are side by side on the four things that change a quote: how it is made, what suppliers publish, how it is classified for transport, and whether we run it.
The six formats side by side
| Format | How it is made | What public listings publish | Transport classification | Produced by us |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waxed wood wool roll | Hand-braided pine wood wool, dipped so the whole roll carries wax | Ø20 × 50 mm, about 10 g, 8–10 min, 20–32 pieces per box | Non-dangerous goods: ADR / RID, IMDG and IATA section 14 | Yes |
| Firelighter cube or block | Wood fibre pressed with paraffin | 24 pieces per box; 2,000 sets at the largest listed supplier | Non-dangerous goods: section 14 | 【待填】 |
| Fire starter rope or stick | Braided fibre or cotton, waxed | Length rarely published; quoted per order | Non-dangerous goods: section 14 | 【待填】 |
| Pressed firelighter plate | Pressed on dedicated tooling | Follows the tooling | Non-dangerous goods: section 14 | 【待填】 |
| Waterproof or windproof match | Long-stem match, chemical head | Stem length and box count | UN 1944, class 4.1 — dangerous goods | 【待填】 |
| Liquid fire starter | Flammable gel or fluid | Bottled | Class 3 flammable liquid | No |
The transport column is the one that decides a freight quote. A container is booked at the class of its strictest item, so a single line of matches or lighting gel can move an entire consolidated booking onto a dangerous-goods rate.
Why burn time is the wrong first question
Ask what a roll has to do, not how long it burns. EN 1860-3:2023 removed the fixed ignition-time requirement that earlier versions carried, so the 8–10 minutes that appears on most listings is a commercial specification a buyer agrees with a factory — not a limit written into the standard.
What actually decides whether a roll works is whether it stays lit long enough to bring the specific fuel above it to ignition: charcoal in a chimney, split hardwood in a stove, or damp kindling in the rain. Ask for the fuel, the load and the conditions, and the burn time follows from them.
The unit trap: per box or per piece
This category quotes in two different units. Listings on 1688 and the Yiwu market quote per piece, around ¥0.25 in bulk. Listings on Alibaba.com usually quote per box of 20 to 32 pieces, with published tiers at US$1.90 / US$1.80 / US$1.70 as box volume rises.
A ¥0.25 per-piece quote and a US$1.70 per-box quote are in the same order of magnitude once the box count is applied — but read without the unit they look like a seven-to-one spread, which is how buyers end up walking away from a workable price. Always state the unit in an enquiry, and always state it back in a quote.
What to send so we can quote
- Format and target size Which of the six formats, and the diameter × length you need
- Quantity Pieces per shipment and per year — the print MOQ and the freight mode both move with it
- Destination Port or country, so the transport class and the packing spec can be confirmed
- Print Your own label and artwork, or plain stock with your sticker