dear fellow I do not import upfront for business I did tried it few years back when this thread was created but it was profit less infact it was a total loss.
I will explain one more time here why it is a loss and no profit.
1 - the Factories in china only offer a 'reasonable' price on high quality goods if you order a large quantity,
2 - the low price high quantity items if imported are not going to last long so bringing in low quality engines just to save price is like wasting ones time and others money.
3 - Pak Customs have realised that even from china high end products can be imported and they are slowly increasing the duties, levies, custom and all that to even out the curve
4 - MOQ = "minimum order quantity" is a set standard for each factory to take orders, for zongshen its set to 5 with 20~25% additional price per unit, 15%~20% for a dozen and atleast 10% for under a 22' feet container.
5 - For a Industry like zongshen, loncin, lifan they dont even bother to talk directly to consumer and alway route queries there 3rd party suppliers.
so in a nutshell for bring one engine one has to bring atleast 20+ engines to keep price controlled and for 20+ engines we are talking about an investment of atleast a million or may be two million and a R.O.I of atleast 3~5 years... which is a total loss as Rupee has depricated more fastly then the ROI and let alone the expenses of keeping storing those items.
an in next 3~5 years there will be atleast 3 more new latest generations of those same engines in market so its useless..
engines now are imported only on order and advance booking for the given above explaination. when 10+ bookings are done a order is placed on no profit no losss as the biker friends in group have there containser comming and going always to haul the engines from china.