A needle-punched polypropylene geotextile sold in Europe as EarthworX NW 1000 EGF450 comes with a certificate from SKZ, the Würzburg testing institute that acts as notified body 1213 under EU construction law. Certificate 1213-CPR-6484 names Growtivation, a company on Lancing Business Park in West Sussex, as the business placing the fabric on the market. The factory that made it appears only as a plant code: 100OBWOL.
This is the arrangement a European distributor is asking for when it approaches a Chinese factory for OEM work, and the law attaches a duty to it. Under the EU’s 2011 Construction Products Regulation, an importer or distributor that sells a construction product under its own name or trademark is treated as the manufacturer. A company that prints its brand on rolls made in Shandong or Shanghai is therefore the party that draws up the declaration of performance and answers for the CE marking.
The regulation is itself being replaced. Regulation (EU) 2024/3110 became applicable on 8 January 2026, but harmonised standards in force on that date stay valid until withdrawn, and the two regimes will run side by side until January 2040. Geotextiles have been certified against EN 13249 to EN 13257 and EN 13265 under assessment system 2+, in which a notified body inspects the factory’s production control and keeps auditing it. That paperwork decides whether a roll of OEM geosynthetics from China can be used on a European road or landfill contract.
The four manufacturers
Hubei Nete Geosynthetics is the oldest of the four. It started production in 1991 as a licensee of Netlon, now Tensar International, the company that invented integrally extruded netting, and says it was the first firm to bring geogrid to China. Its exports go through a wholly owned subsidiary, Hubei Nete Import and Export.
Taian Modern Plastic, which trades as TMP Geosynthetics, was founded in Tai’an, Shandong, in 1998 and describes itself as the world’s largest geogrid manufacturer. Its range covers biaxial, uniaxial and triaxial geogrids as well as geomembranes and geocells, and in 2017 its American arm opened TMP’s first geogrid line in the United States. A trade-directory profile of the company states that all of its products are CE approved.
Shanghai Yingfan Engineering Material, founded in 2009 in the Zhujiajiao industrial park, concentrates on lining systems such as geomembranes and geosynthetic clay liners, and also installs them. Its Alibaba storefront lists certificates for CE, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001, and its Made-in-China listing advertises OEM and ODM service.
The fourth, CHANGFENG, publishes its private-label terms in detail. Its management-system certificates are issued to Tai’an Changfeng Geosynthetics Co. Ltd, and its catalogue runs from geogrids, geomembranes and geotextiles to drainage boards for roof gardens and sand-retention mats for golf bunkers.
What CHANGFENG puts in writing
CHANGFENG’s OEM/ODM details cover private labels, custom cartons, roll labels and pallet marks, along with product and project documentation, with the scope agreed against the total order size. Its FAQ adds free samples for most products, with the buyer paying the freight, and lists Qingdao as the main shipping port.
On minimum orders and lead times, the company’s own pages disagree. The About Us page says it welcomes small-volume orders and gives a standard production and shipping time of 7 to 14 days. The FAQ sets a standard minimum order of one 20-foot container and a delivery period of 15 to 20 days after confirmation, with a 12-month warranty from shipment. A buyer planning a site programme around the shorter figure needs the quotation to state which applies, for which grade and at what quantity.
Copies of the company’s ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 certificates, reproduced in a supplier review published in September, expire in November 2026, so an order placed now should come with the renewed versions. Those certificates cover management systems only and say nothing about whether a particular geotextile meets a European product standard.
For CE marking, the FAQ quotes a reference, TD40322501. A web search for that number returns no certificate register entry, and its format differs from notified-body certificates such as SKZ’s 1213-CPR-6484, which open with the issuing body’s four-digit number. Until a buyer has seen the document behind it, with the issuer, the product covered and its validity, the number cannot support a tender submission.
What a CE claim has to show
A construction product cannot be CE marked on the strength of the regulation alone. The marking has to rest on a harmonised standard or a European Technical Assessment, backed by a declaration of performance that lists the intended uses, the assessment system, the standards applied and the notified body involved. The mark is not a quality mark either. The regulation sets no performance levels, so whether a grade suits a job depends on the project specification.
That leaves TMP’s claim that all its products are CE approved, and the certificate on Yingfan’s storefront, in the same position as CHANGFENG’s reference number. Each may hold for some products. A buyer still needs the declaration of performance for the exact grade, the notified body’s certificate of factory production control, and a check that the body appears in the European Commission’s NANDO database.
Sending the same request to every factory
A fair comparison starts with one technical schedule sent to every supplier, stating the polymer, fabric construction, mass per unit area, roll dimensions, tensile strength, opening size, permeability and the test method for each value, plus quantity, label artwork, destination port and inspection requirements. Each factory should confirm in writing whether it can make the grade, its minimum order, the sample and production lead times, and which documents will ship with the goods. The quotation should then fix the date, quantity, specification, payment terms and warranty.
For TMP and Hubei Nete, whose public material does not set out private-label terms, that process starts with a direct enquiry about whether they take OEM orders at all.
