Offshore Buying - Castings

I've been a Buyer for almost 15 years now, predominantly utilising UK based suppliers, but I've recently taken on responsibility for offshore buying. This is completely new to me so I wondered if anybody had any advice? I am mainly buying cast iron furniture products (bollards, seat ends, tree grilles etc). We currently buy from foundries China, is this the best place to buy from? Are there any other countries as competitive, on both price and quality? Thanks in advance.