Industrial melting furnace prices on Chinese OEM platforms in May–June 2026 cluster into three tiers: small 500 kg medium-frequency induction units at US$7,500–12,500 per set, mid-capacity 1–5 t steel-shell induction lines at US$11,600–20,500, and aluminium/ferroalloy tilting furnaces at US$50,000–108,000 [S5][S6][S7].
FOB China pricing on Made-in-China shows a 1–3 set MOQ discount of 3–5% (e.g. an aluminium melting furnace at US$108,000 for 1–2 sets dropping to US$103,000 for 3+ sets), while single-piece induction units are typically quoted at flat factory price [S4]. Induction, gas, and resistance/crucible configurations differ on temperature ceiling, atmosphere control, and per-ton electricity or fuel cost, so the cheapest unit is rarely the lowest total-cost-of-ownership choice.
Furnace Family Map: Induction vs Gas-Fired vs Crucible/Resistance
Medium-frequency induction furnaces dominate the 0.25–5 t capacity band for ferrous scrap, copper, and aluminium, with a 500 kg steel-shell tilting model listed at US$11,600–12,500 FOB Jiangsu, 1-piece MOQ, with rated "fast dispatch" supplier feedback on Made-in-China [S5].
Gas-fired and regenerative burner systems remain standard for aluminium melting and holding at scale, where a single aluminium melting + holding furnace line from a Foshan-based OEM is quoted at US$103,000–108,000 for a 1–3 set MOQ, ISO 9001:2015 / ISO 14001 / ISO 45001 audited [S4].
Crucible and resistance-fired furnaces fill the precious-metal, jewellery, and laboratory niche — referenced in Silver Melting Furnace technical presentations on PowerShow as a distinct category with smaller batch sizes and tighter temperature uniformity [S1]. For a deeper primer on gas-fired aluminium melting, see the gas-fired aluminium melting furnace reference, and for the broader family see melting furnace types.
Capacity, Tonnage, and Power: Selection Gates Before Price
Rated capacity in kg or tonnes per heat is the first gate. A 500 kg induction unit on Made-in-China (APS Induction, Luoyang Hongteng, and similar Diamond Members) covers small foundries and jewellery-batch alloying, while 1 t, 2 t, 5 t, and 20 t induction furnaces cluster in the US$7,500–11,800 range per set for 20 t class steel-melting scrap units [S5][S6].
Medium-frequency induction at 1–10 kHz is the common spec for steel and iron scrap; mains-frequency (50/60 Hz) channel furnaces are used for 10 t+ foundry melts where melt-rate matters more than stir intensity. For high-tonnage iron and ferroalloy work, ferroalloy melting furnace price listings on Made-in-China reference US$50,000–90,000 per set, 1-set MOQ, supplied by APS Induction (Taizhou) [S2].
Power demand scales roughly linearly with melt rate: a 1 t steel-shell induction furnace is typically paired with a 750–1,200 kW medium-frequency power supply, while a 500 kg aluminium tilting furnace runs at 250–400 kW. These figures match the OEM product descriptions in the Made-in-China catalogue but are not always printed on the listing — confirm the kW rating in the datasheet before sizing the plant electrical bus [S5][S6].
Price vs Total Cost: Sticker, Electricity, Refractory, Atmosphere
The headline FOB price is roughly 40–60% of the delivered-installed cost for an induction line, once you add medium-voltage transformer, bus bars, water cooling, refractory lining, and crane/charging auxiliaries. A US$11,600 500 kg induction unit can land at US$30,000–45,000 installed; a US$108,000 aluminium melting + holding line typically lands at US$220,000–350,000 [S4][S5].
Electricity is the dominant operating cost for induction and resistance furnaces.
Refractory life is the second cost gate: clay-bonded silica and high-alumina linings in induction furnaces typically run 200–400 heats for steel before re-lining, while alumina and SiC linings on aluminium holding furnaces can run 1–3 years depending on flux chemistry. The aluminium furnace supplier in Foshan lists CE and ISO 9001:2015 certifications and a 5-sets-per-month production capacity as a proxy for serialised refractory QC [S4].
Comparison Table: 500 kg vs 1–5 t vs Aluminium / Ferroalloy Lines
For a procurement engineer weighing three OEM classes, the decision criteria line up as follows: [S1]
Small 500 kg medium-frequency induction (US$7,500–12,500) — best for: jewellery, dental alloys, R&D, low-volume iron and copper melts, single-phase or three-phase 380 V shop power; not for: continuous 24/7 steel foundry production because melt rate tops out at roughly 0.4 t/h.
Mid 1–5 t steel-shell induction (US$11,600–20,500) — best for: jobbing iron and steel foundries, copper alloy mills, scrap recyclers; not for: clean aluminium because iron pickup from the steel shell contaminates the melt (use an aluminium-shell variant).
Aluminium / ferroalloy tilting furnace (US$50,000–108,000) — best for: aluminium mills, ferroalloy producers, large foundries needing tilt-pour; not for: small-batch jewellery work where a crucible furnace is more cost-effective. The Luoyang Hongteng product range explicitly separates aluminium-shell, stainless-steel-shell, and induction variants to address the iron-pickup issue at this capacity [S9].
Use Cases by Industry: Ferrous, Non-Ferrous, Precious, Lab
Ferrous: a 1–5 t steel-shell induction furnace paired with a 750–1,500 kW MF power supply is the workhorse for steel, iron, and alloyed iron scrap melting, and is the most-listed product class on Made-in-China under the "Melting Furnace Price" search at US$7,500–11,800 per set for the 20 t class and US$11,600–20,500 for 1 t–5 t [S6][S7].
Non-ferrous: aluminium melting and holding furnaces with regenerative burners from Foshan-based OEM (US$103,000–108,000) are sized for casthouse duty cycles of 8–24 h; copper and brass induction furnaces tend to be smaller, 0.25–1 t, and overlap the jewellery-band pricing [S4].
Precious metals and lab: silver and gold melting furnace presentations cover small electric resistance and induction units in the 1–30 kg range with PID temperature control and graphite or SiC crucibles; pricing on these is dominated by crucible and atmosphere options rather than the furnace shell [S1]. The related selection reference for cupola furnace duties — grey iron cupola melting — is a separate class for foundries with continuous coke-fired throughput.
Supplier Vetting on Made-in-China: MOQ, Audits, Lead Time
Two supplier signals on Made-in-China correlate with on-time delivery and spec conformance: Diamond Member / Audited Supplier status, and the presence of a video walkthrough on the listing. APS Induction Furnace (Taizhou) Co., Ltd. is a Diamond Member Audited Supplier in Jiangsu, listed on at least four melting-furnace category searches with 5.0/5.0 feedback and a "Fast Dispatch" tag on the 500 kg tilting model [S5][S6][S7].
Luoyang Hongteng Electrical Equipment Co., Ltd. (founded 2012) lists induction melting, induction heating, heat treatment, rolling-mill, and casting production lines on its corporate site — useful for foundries that need the furnace plus downstream casting table from a single integrator [S9]. Luoyang Hongteng's induction melting furnace is also the OEM for 20 t class units in the US$7,500–11,800 / set tier [S6].
Lead time for a 500 kg–5 t induction unit is typically 15–30 days ex-works once the order is confirmed; aluminium melting + holding lines with regenerative burners run 45–75 days because the burner block, stack, and heat-recovery matrix are custom-fabricated. Jiangsu Gelan Environmental Technology lists an integrated cement-production melting-heating unit at US$100,000 per piece, MOQ 1, with ISO 9001:2015 / ISO 14001 / ISO 45001 certification [S6] — a useful signal that environmental integration is now a standard bid requirement on Chinese steel-mill projects.
Limitations, Failure Modes, and What the Listing Won't Tell You
Three failure modes dominate the warranty claims on industrial melting furnaces: (1) water-cooling coil leaks on induction furnaces from poor water quality, addressed by specifying closed-loop deionised cooling; (2) refractory burn-through on the coil grout, typically at the coil-to-spout transition, where a 25–40 mm backup lining of castable high-alumina extends life; (3) burner port damage on regenerative aluminium furnaces, where flame-impingement refractory should be 70% Al₂O₃ minimum [S4][S9].
The Made-in-China listing pages rarely publish the kW rating, the lining life in heats, the cooling-water flow, or the dB(A) noise figure for the MF power supply. A US$11,600 500 kg induction unit and a US$12,500 500 kg induction unit can differ by 200–400 kW in installed power, 100–300 mm in coil diameter, and a factor of 2 in refractory life — all invisible in the price field. Request the datasheet with the kW, frequency, melt rate, lining spec, and CE / IECEx scope before signing the PO [S5][S6].
For buyers pairing a new furnace with a downstream casting line, the LPDC machine spec guide covers the low-pressure die-casting side of the same procurement cycle, and the magnesium die casting machine price guide covers the magnesium-alloy variant where induction furnace alloying and melt-hold are tightly coupled to the shot sleeve.
Standards, Certifications, and Specification Discipline
CE marking and ISO 9001:2015 are the baseline on every Made-in-China listing in the aluminium/ferroalloy melting furnace class, with ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 added by integrated suppliers such as Jiangsu Gelan and the Foshan aluminium furnace OEM [S4][S6]. For European plant builds, ATEX conformity on the burner control panel and IEC 60079-series hazardous-area certification on any gas-fired furnace installed near a charging well are non-negotiable; for US builds, NFPA 86 governs oven and furnace safety and is the equivalent spec to demand.
For foundries serving oil-and-gas end users, NACE MR0175 / ISO 15156 governs the sulphur, phosphorus, and impurity limits in alloy melts for sour-service components — and the melting furnace atmosphere control (argon shroud, vacuum induction) is the upstream gate. Foundries supplying titanium, nickel, or magnesium alloys should treat the titanium alloy 2026 buying guide and the nickel alloy buying guide 2026 as companion references for the melt-shop chemistry side of the same procurement.
Domestic-residential furnace cost references, e.g. Carrier's 2026 furnace-cost guide, sit in a separate efficiency-rating (AFUE) and BTU/h framework, and are not directly comparable to industrial melting furnace prices quoted in tonnes-per-heat — the residential range starts at roughly US$3,000–US$8,000 installed, which is below the entry cost of a 1-piece industrial induction unit [S3].
Procurement next step: lock the capacity (kg/heat and heats/day), the shell material (steel vs aluminium vs stainless), the power (kW and frequency), and the atmosphere requirement (air, inert, vacuum) before sending the RFQ; treat any unit that cannot produce the four datapoints as a non-quote. The Melting Furnace category pages on SourceBySpec — gas aluminium melting furnace, crucible furnace, and the parent melting furnace entry — are the right anchor points to cross-check the OEM spec sheet against the standards before issuing the PO.