The three materials look almost identical in a photograph and behave very differently once a crew starts moving them.
Published 17 October 2026 · Sabo Furniture, Foshan
The three materials look almost identical in a photograph. They behave very differently once a crew starts moving them, and the difference shows up in year two rather than on the day of delivery.
| Steel | Moulded resin | Solid wood | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weight per chair | 4 kg | 4.6 kg | 4 kg |
| Load capacity | 300 kg (static) | 300 kg (static) | 300 kg (static) |
| Chairs per 40HQ | up to 1,420 | up to 2,500 | up to 1,100 |
| Indicative price | USD 1.80 – 13.50 | USD 1.50 – 17.86 | USD 25.90 – 35.90 |
| Outdoor use | Indoors; touch up chips | Suitable for ceremonies | Ceremony only, store indoors |
| Repair | Re-coat at the weld | Replace the unit | Re-glue, sand, refinish |
Prices are per piece, FOB Foshan, at a 50-piece minimum. Weight and load are identical across materials by design — the chair is the same, the frame is not.
A powder-coated steel frame is the most rigid of the three. The joint does not flex, so the chair keeps its geometry through years of stacking, and a chip in the coating can be touched up before it becomes rust.
It is also the heaviest per unit volume of the metal options, which is the trade: rigidity in the room, effort in the van.
Moulded resin does not rust, does not mind a damp marquee, and is kinder to wooden floors. It also loads 76% more chairs into a container than steel, because the frames weigh less and nest tighter — which is why the landed cost per chair is often the lowest of the three.
The caveat is temperature. In sustained cold, cheaper resin grades become brittle; specify the grade if the chairs will live outdoors through a winter.
Solid timber costs three to four times a steel chair, and it earns that price in venues where the chair has to look like furniture rather than hire stock. Its real advantage is that a loose joint can be re-glued and a scratched finish sanded and re-stained locally.
It is also the one material that needs indoor storage. Timber moves with humidity, and a season in an unheated container will show.
If the chairs are hired out and handled roughly, buy steel and accept the freight. If they go outdoors or you are optimising landed cost per unit, buy resin. If the venue's look depends on the chair and someone on site can maintain it, buy wood.
Two factories can quote the same weight and the same price and produce very different chairs, because the cost sits in the weld and the cushion, not in the material spec. Ask for a sample, then do three things to it: sit on it for an hour, stack it ten high, and look at the joint under the paint.
Steel, in normal indoor use. The frame is rigid and the joint does not move; what fails is the coating, and that is repairable. Resin survives weather better but ages differently; wood needs the driest storage.
Per chair, usually yes at the low end, and it loads more per container — up to 2,500 per 40HQ against 1,420 for steel — so the landed cost per unit is lower still.
For a ceremony, yes; for storage, no. Solid timber moves with humidity, so chairs should come in after the event.
The weld, the cushion fixing and the stacking fit. Those three decide whether the chair survives a season of handling.
All buying guides — thirteen articles on sizing, pricing, importing and specifying.
