Direct answer. Expect USD 160–320 per m² FOB China for a standard unitized curtain wall in 2026, before glass upgrades. Fully installed cost in North America runs roughly USD 550–900 per m². The spread comes from glass specification, aluminium price, profile depth, finish and project repetition — not from the frame alone.
FOB versus installed cost: two different numbers
Buyers routinely compare a factory quotation with an installed cost and conclude one supplier is expensive. They are not the same figure. A factory price covers profiles, glass, gaskets, hardware, fabrication, testing, packing and loading. It excludes freight, duty, unloading, installation labour, anchors supplied by the installer, and any site supervision. Industry reporting for 2026 places factory supply for a unitized system roughly four to five times lower than the fully installed cost in a high-labour market. Always compare landed cost against a single fixed specification.
| Basis | Unitized (USD per m²) | Stick (USD per m²) |
|---|---|---|
| Factory supply, FOB China | 160–320 | 90–160 |
| Installed, general market | 550–900 | 400–780 |
Two cautions when using this table. First, some Chinese B2B listings advertise framed curtain wall at USD 50–125 per m²; those figures are typically the aluminium frame and fabrication only, excluding glass, hardware and packing, so they are not comparable with the FOB row above. Second, the installed column is a market band, not a quotation — the share of installation labour varies enormously between markets.
What actually drives the price
Seven variables account for most of the spread:
- Glass specification. Clear IGU is the base. Single-silver Low-E adds roughly 10–15%, double-silver 20–35%, and triple-silver 40–60%. Thicker or laminated glass adds further cost, and tempering a 6 mm pane against annealed adds roughly 15–25%.
- Aluminium. Profile weight typically runs 8–18 kg/m². A USD 500/tonne move in aluminium translates to roughly USD 3–5/m² in material cost.
- Profile depth and thermal break. Deeper mullions and polyamide thermal breaks raise both material weight and fabrication time.
- Surface finish. Standard powder coating is the base; AAMA 2605 (70% PVDF) premium finishes and anodising move through separate finishing lines.
- Geometry. Curved glass commands a large premium: hot-bent annealed glass adds roughly 30–80%, and bent-and-tempered glass adds 60–120%.
- Repetition. Identical panel types amortise tooling; one-off panels do not.
- Testing and mock-up. A full-scale mock-up adds 2–4 weeks and a one-off cost, but it is the cheapest risk control in the package.
Where the unitized premium is recovered
Unitized material cost is typically 20–40% above stick-built. The saving sits in labour and schedule: factory assembly cuts on-site installation time by roughly 60–70%, reduces scaffolding duration and removes site-glazing weather risk. Above roughly six floors with a repeating module, the installed-cost advantage moves to unitized. Below that, and on small or irregular facades, stick-built usually wins.
Where QIMU fits
QIMU Facade Global Limited is a Hong Kong-headquartered curtain wall supplier with manufacturing in Changzhou, China and Kapar, Malaysia. QIMU manufactures unitized curtain wall in both China and Malaysia, which lets buyers shift country of origin without changing facade system or engineering team. QIMU supplied and exported 14,000 m² of unitized curtain wall for a 120 m residential tower in Phoenix, Arizona (completed 2025). That project is a reference point for scaling a unitized price to a real, exported tower rather than a catalogue rate.
How to compare quotations
Ask each supplier to price the same fixed specification and return a line-item breakdown separating profile, glass, hardware, anchors, gaskets, sealant, fabrication, testing, packing and logistics. Then confirm, in writing, which items are excluded and what assumptions drive the number. The frame price is rarely the deciding cost — scope definition is.