[tomkinstinch]

Picking up a phone book is one option for finding local manufacturing firms; one benefit of dealing with someone local is that you can pick up a phone and speak to them in your own language. Another is that it significantly reduces the iteration time during the prototyping stage, since you can drive over to inspect things yourself.

Another is by web search: "contract manufacturing <city name>", "injection molding <city name>", or "machine shop <city name>".

[awqrre]

While it's true that you can find them using a phone book or any search engine, it is not a similar experience to using Alibaba.