Find overseas suppliers from US import records for sourcing
Search US customs import records for importers and their overseas suppliers, with shipment counts, dates and addresses, as JSON for sourcing and sales research.
To find a manufacturer, you can ask for referrals, work through trade-show lists, or look at who already ships to US buyers like you. The last route is the most direct, because US customs records show which overseas supplier sends what to which importer, and how often. Lovely Router searches those records. Send a company or product keyword, get one JSON object per company, pay per company from a prepaid balance. Call it from a sourcing script, a CRM job or an AI agent with one API key.
Hand it to your AI agent
Copy this prompt into Claude Code, Cursor, Codex or any coding agent. It tells the agent where the docs are and how to use your API key.
Find overseas suppliers from US import records for sourcing. Use the Lovely Router data tools: each returns JSON and is billed per result.
- Docs (read first): https://lovelyrouter.com/docs/tools/find.md and https://lovelyrouter.com/docs/tools/run.md
- Plan first: POST https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/suggest with `{"task": "<my task in plain words>"}` (free). It returns the tools to run in order, each with an example `input`, the `input_required` fields, an estimated cost and a ready-made `run` request. Replace the example values with my task's; if a field is unclear, read the tool with GET https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/<id>. To browse instead, POST https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/discover searches the catalog.
- Show me the plan and its estimated cost (`total_est_cost_usd`) before running anything large.
- Run: POST https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/<id>/run with `{"input": {...}, "max_results": N}`. A 200 has the finished run with `items`; a 202 means it is still running, so poll the `poll` path until `status` is `succeeded`, `failed`, `timed_out` or `stopped`.
- Only delivered results are billed. Keep max_results small on the first run, check the output, then scale up.
- If you support MCP, connect https://lovelyrouter.com/mcp instead (Streamable HTTP, same key; https://lovelyrouter.com/docs/tools/mcp.md) and use suggest_tools, get_tool and run_tool.
- Auth: read my API key from the LOVELY_API_KEY environment variable and send it as `Authorization: Bearer $LOVELY_API_KEY`. Never print or commit the key. If it is not set, ask me to create one at https://lovelyrouter.com/app/keys.
- Billing is prepaid: every call is charged to my balance, so test with a small request before running anything large.
- Every docs page is plain Markdown; the full index is https://lovelyrouter.com/llms.txt.
My task: <the inputs (links, keywords or accounts) and how many results you need>How it works
Search by a competitor or a product
Use a competitor's name to see who supplies them, or a product keyword to see who ships it.
Run the tool with filters and a cap
Send the query to
POST /v1/tools/importyeti-companies/run. Settypetosupplierfor overseas exporters orcompanyfor US importers, and useminShipmentsandmostRecentShipmentto keep active trading partners.Shortlist and contact
Sort by shipment count and last shipment date, keep the suppliers that ship steadily, and take them to your normal vetting and quoting process.
Search import records with one request
Search US import records takes a query and returns up to 200 companies per run. maxResults in input is the cap. This example finds active overseas suppliers matching a keyword:
curl https://lovelyrouter.com/v1/tools/importyeti-companies/run \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $LOVELY_API_KEY" \
-H "content-type: application/json" \
-d '{
"input": {
"query": "anker",
"type": "supplier",
"mostRecentShipment": "12mo",
"minShipments": 5,
"maxResults": 20
},
"max_results": 20
}'Each result is a company with its shipment data. searchType can switch the search from names to addresses. A run still going after 60 seconds returns 202; Run a tool shows how to poll.
What each company holds
| Field group | What you get |
|---|---|
| Company | Importers and their overseas suppliers |
| Shipments | Shipment counts and dates |
| Location | Addresses |
| Brand | Trademarks |
The records come from US customs filings, so they cover goods shipped into the United States.
Recipes
Search the competitor by name with type set to company, read the suppliers, and request quotes from those with steady shipments.
Search a product keyword with type set to supplier and minShipments of 10, so you only see exporters that ship in volume.
Set mostRecentShipment to 6mo so factories that stopped shipping are not on your list.
If you sell packaging, logistics or software, search company records for a product category and take importers with high shipment counts as prospects.
Use searchType addresses to see which companies share a warehouse or office address.
Prefer plain words? Connect the MCP server and tell Claude Code or Cursor: "Search US import records for suppliers of 'silicone kitchen tools' that shipped in the last 12 months with at least 5 shipments. Return 25 companies with their last shipment date. Set maxResults and max_results to 25."
Pair it with supplier and company research
Import records show who ships. These tools show what the supplier sells and who works there:
US customs import records from ImportYeti: importers and their overseas suppliers, shipment counts and dates, addresses, trademarks.
Alibaba.com product listings or suppliers by keyword: price range, minimum order, supplier, years on Alibaba, verification, ratings, delivery estimate.
Wholesale products from 1688.com (Alibaba's China B2B market) by keyword: title, tiered price in CNY, minimum order, sales, repurchase rate, supplier and location.
LinkedIn company pages: description, industry, size, headquarters, website, followers.
Crawl websites and extract emails, phone numbers and social profile links. One result = one website (up to 5 of its pages crawled, contacts merged).
alibaba-productslists Alibaba.com suppliers and products with price ranges and verification.1688-productssearches the wholesale market by keyword with tiered prices and minimum order.linkedin-companyadds company size and profile for a supplier or importer.website-contactspulls contact details from a company website.
For prospect lists on the sales side, see lead generation.
What you pay
You pay per company: starting a run holds its maximum cost, the per-call fee plus the per-company fee times max_results, and the run settles to what it returned. The rest of the hold goes back to your balance. A run that fails or times out pays only for the companies it delivered, and a run refused at the start costs nothing.
Pulling 150 companies for a sourcing project is billed as 150 companies. There is no subscription and no monthly minimum: top up from $5, and one balance pays for tools and models. The card above shows today's price; pricing lists every tool.
Frequently asked questions
What does ImportYeti data cover?+
US customs import records: importers, their overseas suppliers, shipment counts and dates, addresses and trademarks.
Does it cover imports into other countries?+
Not in this data. The records are US imports.
How many companies can one run return?+
Up to 200 per run, set with maxResults in input. For a bigger job, start more runs; several can run at once on your account.
Can I look for suppliers or importers only?+
Yes. type takes any, supplier (overseas exporters) or company (US importers).
Do I need a subscription?+
No. You add credit to a prepaid balance and each run draws it down. Failed runs pay only for the results they delivered, and nothing renews automatically.
Sourcing end to end? See e-commerce intelligence, lead generation and the tool catalog.