201 vs 304 Stainless Steel Kitchenware: How to Tell What You’re Really Buying

My personal retail-buying experience includes Auchan and Magnit projects.

It still is. I now run a sourcing office in Yiwu, and I XRF-test every stainless order we handle — because in this market, grade substitution is not an accident. It's a margin strategy.

This article explains how the substitution works, why a magnet won't save you, and the exact verification steps that will.

Why 201 exists (and why the fraud is profitable)

The difference between the grades is mostly nickel — the expensive ingredient.

Two things the spec table doesn't tell you:

A trade nickname does not establish composition or corrosion performance; compare the declared grade and component-level test evidence against the agreed material specification.

The price gap between 201 and 304 moves with nickel prices, so there is no fixed ratio; ask for both grades on the same quote and the gap becomes visible.

To be clear: 201 itself is not the crime. I have deliberately bought declared 201 and 430 for retail price-point lines — dry-goods utensils, promotional ranges — with the grade printed honestly on the packaging. The crime is paying for 304 and receiving something else.

How the switch actually happens

Three patterns I've seen repeatedly, from the buyer's chair:

1. The reorder switch. Your first order — the one you inspected carefully — is genuine 304. The reorder, placed with trust and no inspection, ships in 201. This is the classic, and it's why reorder QC matters more than first-order QC.

2. A mixed-material batch can vary by component or carton; define component checks and select across the lot rather than relying on two convenient cartons.

3. The honest-ish factory, dishonest coil. The factory believes it bought 304. Its coil supplier didn't deliver 304. Nobody in the chain tested. In a falling raw-material market, this happens more, not less — everyone is squeezing the layer below.

Why the magnet test isn't enough

The most repeated advice on the internet — "304 is non-magnetic, so bring a magnet" — is half-true and fully unreliable:

• Annealed 304 and annealed 201 are both non-magnetic. The magnet can't tell them apart in flat sheet form.
• Deep-drawn or cold-worked 304 (bowls, sinks, pressed pans) becomes slightly magnetic. A magnet will happily "fail" genuine 304 cookware.
• 430 is strongly magnetic — the magnet does catch that one.

So: a magnet screens out 430 pretending to be 304. It cannot separate 201 from 304, which is the substitution that actually costs you money.

What actually works: three tiers of verification

Tier 1 — the price sanity check (free, do it at quoting stage). Work backward from the coil. If a quote for "304" product lands at or below what the raw 304 steel content alone should cost, the quote is telling you the truth even if the label isn't. As a retail buyer I killed suppliers at this stage without ever ordering a sample — a price that can't be 304, isn't 304.

Tier 2 — stainless test drops (cheap, minutes, catches most 201). Molybdenum/manganese test solutions cost a few dollars a bottle in any Chinese hardware market. A drop of stainless test solution (sold in China as 不锈钢鉴别药水) on a clean surface: low-nickel 201 typically changes colour within a minute or two, while 304 stays clear. Treat it as a screen, and confirm with XRF. It's a screening tool, not a certificate — but it turns a 30-second booth visit into a real filter. I keep a bottle in my market bag.

Tier 3 — XRF spot testing (definitive, what we actually do). A handheld XRF gun reads the alloy composition in seconds, non-destructively: actual nickel %, chromium %, manganese %. This is the only method that settles arguments. On our orders, XRF checks are built into inspection at AQL-based carton sampling — random cartons, random pieces, readings recorded in the report next to photos. If you've seen one of our inspection reports, the grade readings are on the same pages as the function tests.

Mill certificates? Ask for them, but understand what they are: a certificate for a coil batch, not for your cartons. Certificates are photocopied, borrowed, and reprinted freely here. A cert plus batch traceability plus spot XRF means something. A cert alone means the factory owns a printer.

Write it into the PO, not the WhatsApp chat

Verbal grade promises are worth nothing after wiring the deposit. Three lines that belong in every stainless purchase order:

1. Grade + standard: "Material: SUS304 / AISI 304 per ASTM A240 or EN 10088-2 (1.4301), all components including lids, handles and fasteners unless separately specified."
2. Test method + sampling: "Verification by XRF at inspection: at least five units from different cartons, with every steel component tested."
3. Remedy: "Grade non-conformity = rejected lot at supplier's cost, including inspection re-fee."

A supplier who accepts these three lines calmly is usually a supplier who doesn't need them. The one who argues about them just answered your real question.

Free 16-page kitchenware toolkit. Before ordering stainless steel kitchenware, use it to record product specifications, request material evidence and plan inspection. View the toolkit