There Are So Many Companies That Produce Masks. Why Can'T You Buy Them?

After the outbreak of the new crown, medical supplies such as domestic masks, medical protective clothing and other medical materials were all in urgent demand. A large number of large factories were cross industry assistance, adding new production lines and new production workshops to the production force of masks and protective clothing.

In March 2nd, the national development and Reform Commission announced that China's daily mask production exceeded 100 million.

But another real dilemma is that the continuous influx of cross industry producers seems to have failed to alleviate the existence of masks in the market. What is the problem?

　　 Few transfer enterprises enter the field of masks and raw materials.

The price curve, which is known by the industry as "reaching the extreme market situation" and rising constantly, represents a real-time market quotation for a ton of melted cloth in China, and it is no doubt that it is tightly holding the throat of the mask to expand its capacity.

As an important raw material for filtering bacteria in medical masks, the outbreak of the new crown has made melt blown fabric a more scarce "preparation material" than a mask. The market price climbed from the initial 18 thousand yuan / ton to the recent 400 thousand yuan / ton.

Even so, it is still "difficult to find one cloth".

BYD is one of the "big factories" of cross boundary production masks and disinfectants. In an interview with the media, BYD revealed that they were worrying about the shortage of melted cloth. It was difficult to find an enterprise that produced a melted spray cloth in Guangdong Province, and signed 14 tons of melt blown fabric orders, which would only arrive in a month, and this order would only support two or three days of production.

According to the production of 2 million medical masks according to 1.5 tons of melt spraying cloth, the domestic daily output of 70 million masks, the daily consumption of melted spray cloth reached 52.5 tons; according to the statistics of China Industrial Textiles Association, the annual output of domestic melt spraying cloth in 2018 was only about 53 thousand and 400 tons, and in addition to mask production, it was also applied in other fields.

According to the search results, there are less than 300 enterprises in the scope of operation, including "melt blown fabric", and most of them are small and medium scale production enterprises.

At the same time, as a shortage of materials, after the outbreak of the outbreak, few factories are willing to switch to melt blown cloth. From the media coverage, the retailer only saw that Sinopec said in February 25th that it would invest about 200 million yuan in Yanshan petrochemical and Yizheng chemical fiber construction of melted spray cloth and non-woven production line.

Before the SARS epidemic in 2003, the gauze mask was still the main form in China. After the outbreak, the respirator with filter materials began to be accepted by the public. But in the past 17 years, the melted spray cloth industry has not been greatly developed due to SARS, and has been in a state of low temperature.

　　 The high cost of production and complex production process are the main reasons why the melt blown fabric industry is not favored.

According to public information, a large number of domestic melt spraying manufacturers are distributed in Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan and other provinces. The highest output enterprises are at 10 tons per day, and the average daily output of more producers is about 1 tons.

Low production costs are high investment costs. "A set of melted cloth production equipment costs at least 4 million yuan to 5 million yuan, the delivery cycle is six months, and it takes 10 months to really land, of which a large number of core components rely on foreign manufacturers. "

According to an industry figure, the hot melt of the epidemic has not really stimulated the development of the industry. Even if BYD, GAC, SAIC and other large factories have switched to production, there is little in the field of melt blown fabric.

　　 How does the product change mask?

Compared with the few people in the melt spraying industry, the production of masks and protective clothing is low because of the low threshold, attracting a group of novice to enter.

According to data from the eye, from January 1, 2020 to February 7th, there were 3647 enterprises with new medical devices, and more than 3000 enterprises added "mask, protective clothing, disinfectant, thermometer" and other businesses.

In the first ten days of February, fast examination and approval, quick configuration of production lines and rapid production, a large number of cross industry factories joined in the production of masks, including SAIC GM Wuling, Shanghai three guns, Jiangsu red bean dress, and PetroChina and Sinopec.

But the quality of the "changing" mask that hastily launched is another question.

During the epidemic period, the production equipment of masks is in short supply, and most of the conversion enterprises produce masks by transforming old equipment.

In the open information, the way to transform the old production line includes SAIC GM Wuling (through the Ford group of Guangxi), Wuhu leisurely nursing supplies Polytron Technologies Inc, Zhejiang Jordan clothing and Limited by Share Ltd. Can such a transformation meet the national certification standard for medical masks?

Through the "national enterprise credit information publicity system", the retail merchant inquired about the business information of enterprises including Guangxi Defu Lai medical equipment (SAIC GM, Wuling), BYD, Guangzhou automobile, Foxconn, Shanghai three guns, red bean stock, AOKANG, daddy baby, Shanghai Bao bird Clothing Co., Ltd., East Mongolia Group Co., Ltd., and found that only 1/3 enterprises explicitly publicized the production masks. Relevant qualifications and grades.

Among them, Zhejiang East Mongolia Group Co., Ltd. in February 24th this year, new "first class medical devices, second types of medical devices, labor protection supplies R & D, production and sales" business projects; Shanghai Bao bird Clothing Co., Ltd. in February 11th this year, added "a class of medical devices and disposable medical isolation clothing" business.

A class of medical devices, or two kinds of medical devices, represents the qualification grading of different masks. According to the relevant regulations, enterprises that produce disposable medical masks must obtain second types of medical device licenses.

It is understood that the two categories of medical equipment licensing qualification examination is very strict, in addition to achieve health, production, product licensing and other basic requirements, enterprises must have 100 thousand or more mask production of clean workshop, and the production environment must be dust-free, sterile. At the same time, there will be chemical residues in the processing of medical masks, which will take 14 days to release.

"The audit process for the two category of medical devices is streamlined, and the fastest is 20 days." A masked industry insider told the retail monarch that according to the relevant regulations of the state, enterprises that did not obtain two types of medical device licenses could only label daily masks (not medical) on the masks.

According to the information released by SAIC GM Wuling, Foxconn, BYD and so on, the two categories of medical device production qualification have not been publicized. This is not a small number of cases.

The lack of professional qualification is difficult to solve the problem of medical masks. According to a mask industry, most of the new manufacturers entering the mask market focus on the production of civilian masks, and the manufacturing technology is relatively low.

In the view of domestic medical supplies manufacturers, medical protective masks are usually used only by professional medical institutions (such as disease control and infectious ward), and there are very few reserves in the three categories of industrial masks (such as dust), civil protection (pollen, haze, etc.) and medical care (bacteria). Medical masks will have larger market demand in the future.

　　 Unsuitable for speculation

The 5 departments of the national development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance and the people's Bank of China have jointly identified the first batch of the first batch of national epidemic prevention and control key protection enterprises list. Among them, the first batch of key protection lists were concentrated in protective clothing, mask, disinfectant, medical goggles, infrared thermometer, nucleic acid detection kit and so on.

The actual financing cost of the loans currently discounted is 1.28%, which is lower than the State Council's requirement of not more than 1.6%.

At the same time, Hubei, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Chongqing, Beijing, Guangdong, Henan and other 10 provinces and cities can independently establish the epidemic prevention and control key areas in the region to protect the list of enterprises, and subsidize them in addition. Among them, Henan puts forward the key protection enterprise loan interest rate is only 3.5%.

In the list of publicity, some transfer enterprises are listed. Government subsidies and capital hot money are flowing into this special industry. Will history repeat itself?

17 years ago, SARS also caused a fever of mask production.

According to the head of a Beijing mask enterprise who has experienced SARS, only one or two enterprises have produced masks locally before SARS. When the SARS occurred, the growth of mask enterprises increased to nearly 100, resulting in a sharp rise in prices of raw materials and equipment.

But this craze lasted only a month. Many enterprises have not yet started the purchase of equipment, the epidemic is controlled.

Then, the market of masks was oversupplied, and a large number of new influx enterprises went bankrupt in one or two years and withdrew from the market.

After the end of SARS, the development of mask industry has entered a slow rising stage.

In 2004, fifth years after the outbreak of avian influenza, the outbreak of influenza A (H1N1) activated the mask industry which had been silent for a long time. At that time, the supply of domestic masks had increased to 1 billion 960 million, and began to increase year by year. In 2011, the mask production reached 2 billion 500 million, and it rose to 3 billion in 2012.

In 2013, as the national average fog and haze day continued to rise, masks gradually changed from special protective products to everyday necessities.

Official data show that as of the end of 2013, the market scale of China's functional dust respirators was close to 2 billion yuan, while the market size of civil protective masks also exceeded 1 billion yuan. By 2019, China had more than 5 billion mask masks, with an output value of 10 billion 235 million yuan, accounting for 54% of the medical masks that could be used for virus protection.

According to statistics of the China Textile Business Association, there were about 500 masks companies before 2013, compared with 1000 in 2017. In recent years, the annual growth rate of respirator industry is 15%.

People in the mask industry pointed out: "the domestic mask industry has developed relatively smoothly in recent two years, and export trade accounts for 50%. But this year, there are so many new businesses coming into the market. From the data point of view, new capacity has been added. Next, if the market is able to digest after the outbreak, it is hard to judge at the moment.

At present, there are three kinds of enterprises that can turn the production into the mask production industry. The first type of enterprises, in response to the call of the state, transfer production to support the epidemic, and will automatically withdraw after the outbreak. For example, Shanghai three guns once joined the mask production during the SARS period, and no longer produced the mask after the outbreak.

　　 The second type of business is to earn money in order to enter the market. These enterprises often do not work hard in product and market, invest in cost, only to earn quick money, and compete in the future.

"A lot of face masks related enterprises are asking how to buy equipment, how to find raw materials, and some even make their own raw materials, but are they up to standard? How to compete next? "

　　 The third category is the original intention to enter the field of mask production. A company with a foundation, a plan, a knowledge of the market and a firm grasp of future competition.

For example, a mask manufacturer in Zhejiang revealed that it plans to produce high-end protective masks and will continue to expand its capacity by 20% after the outbreak.

Today, domestic epidemic has been temporarily controlled, and the global outbreak has become a global shortage of masks. Some people engaged in foreign trade said that nowadays, manufacturers of masks export trade plan on the international electricity supplier platform are increasing.

There is also a great deal of risk behind this: exports abroad need to be accredited through local accreditation. Taking the United States as an example, the audit cycle is usually 6~8 months, with a cost of several hundred thousand yuan, and the standards vary across the world.

For those enterprises that have not yet obtained the two kinds of domestic medical device production license, it is very difficult to obtain the masks standards such as NIOSH 42CFR84 and EU EN149-2001.