Heavy Duty Castor Wholesale: Margins, MOQs & Container Strategy

Most heavy duty castor factories operate three or four pricing tiers based on annual volume rather than per-order quantity. Tier 1 (1,000–5,000 pcs/yr) gets the catalog price. Tier 2 (5,000–25,000) shaves 8–12%. Tier 3 (25,000+) opens custom contract pricing, often with consigned inventory.

The fastest way to jump tiers is to commit to a blanket purchase order: a 12-month commitment with monthly draw-downs. Manufacturers reward predictability because it lets them buy raw steel and polyurethane in bulk.

A standard 20' container holds roughly 18,000–22,000 mid-size heavy duty casters (4-inch to 6-inch wheel, polyurethane on iron). A 40' HC holds 38,000–45,000. Mixing wheel sizes is fine — the factory will load-plan for you.

On a port-to-port FOB basis, ocean freight per caster typically lands at $0.18–$0.45 depending on lane and fuel surcharges. Distributors who consolidate slow-moving SKUs into a single quarterly container instead of shipping monthly LCL save 40–60% on inbound logistics.

Stock catalog wholesale is the right move when you're testing a market or supplying a long tail of low-volume SKUs. Lead times are short, MOQs are friendly, and you can build a position before committing to brand investment.

OEM private label makes sense once you have a single SKU pulling 5,000+ units/year. Custom branding adds roughly $0.10–$0.30 per caster in tooling and packaging amortization but locks customers into your channel and prevents direct comparison shopping against the factory's stock catalog.

4" swivel polyurethane on iron, 600 lb capacity — the universal warehouse trolley caster.

6" swivel polyurethane on iron with top-lock brake, 1,000 lb — material handling carts.

8" rigid forged steel kingpinless, 2,500 lb — towable industrial trailers.

5" stainless steel swivel with thermoplastic rubber wheel, 350 lb — food/medical clean-room.

6" cast iron swivel, 1,500 lb — foundry and high-heat environments.

These five SKUs cover roughly 70% of incoming wholesale demand for most North American and EU distributors.