Masks Merchant Adventures: Some People Get Rich. Shanghai Houses Are Bought Casually.

One day in mid April, the red banner was pulled out at the gate of the victory mask factory in Shanghai. On top of it, it was written with the words "watch out for fraud".

But some people turn a blind eye to it. According to the medical service provider Wang Hong (a pseudonym) recalled that day, less than 300 people gathered here, some are selling masks, and some are for goods.

Two women angrily pulled a man's tie and asked him to hand over 1 million masks. They had already paid 2 million 500 thousand masks.

Under the policy of strictly preventing the prevention and control of population aggregation, the mask factory which has been neglected has become a rare exception.

Medical masks are mainly supplied to hospitals. For hospitals, masks are purely consumables and the price is very low. Because of low profit and low technology content, medical consumables manufacturers even disdain to do mask business. Even if they do, they will not use respirators as their main products.

But the new crown epidemic changed the fate of the industry in an instant. Since the outbreak of the outbreak in January, mask demand has shifted from China to the whole world. When supply is far behind demand, there is a tight market in the market, and the price of masks is soaring.

Companies that are making profits and pouring into masks are mixed up and hoarding middlemen. With the development of epidemic situation, market supervision is constantly strengthened. A picture of kaleidoscope is formed. Some people took the opportunity to make a profit, others failed to keep up with the pace. Admission was a loss. Others are subject to legal sanctions for illegal operations.

To the surprise of the medical circles, it is often not the medical people who master the mask resources, and those in the outsiders often have more masks.

Though the technical content of mask is not high, it is by no means a simple overlap of several pieces of cloth. In deciding the value and fate of a mask, in addition to its needs, it also has its raw materials and qualification labels, and the strict and strict yardstick of supervision policy plays a crucial role. The release of a new policy may kill a group of mask business. According to the industry, a large number of masks circulated in the market do not meet the medical requirements.

With the mitigation of domestic epidemic, how should the enterprises that continue to make masks continue? What kind of inspiration do the masks business during the epidemic period give to the medical people?

Crazy mask: "one price per day"

Wang Hong remembers very clearly that in January 22nd, a day before the city was sealed in Wuhan, a friend asked him to ask about the price of disposable medical masks, and he received a price of 8 cents. At that time, he thought the price was very expensive. Because before the epidemic, the disposable medical masks cost less than three or four cents, and the price of the disposable medical masks may only be 2 Gross 5 when the competition is fierce.

Wang Hong did not expect that a few days later, when his company was going to buy a batch of masks to donate to Xiaogan, Hubei, the bid price had reached 1.5 yuan, and only a week later, it had risen to 3.5 yuan.

His bid price reached 6 yuan at the highest price, which was in mid February, just the highest peak of newly diagnosed cases in Wuhan, and the government's request for resumption of enterprises' reserve masks, frontal guns, disinfectant water and other protective materials.

Wang Hong recalled that at that time there was no bargaining room for buying masks, and there would be no discount for orders. "Quotations come, they must be accepted, otherwise they will be pulled down."

Li Jian, a medical consummate in Shanghai, gave the same sigh: "mask is a price per day". He roughly recovered the price of all kinds of mask buying from eight points of Health News: from the end of January to the end of February, prices rose all the way to the peak at the end of February, and the price began to gradually decline as the domestic epidemic was controlled to a certain extent and the capacity increased after the resumption of work in March. The current price is almost the same as the end of January.

Li Jian said, this is only a large number of purchase price, not the factory price, "because the epidemic can not be directly found at the beginning of the factory to buy goods, then the source of goods controlled by the state, only through some stockpile agents and suppliers to buy some".

Although the market supervision departments have issued a price limit order, it is difficult to carry out in the seller LED market. Li Jian remembers that the price limit of disposable medical masks is 1.9 yuan each, that is to say, when the factory sells, the amount of the invoice can not be higher than 1.9 yuan. But Li Jian encountered many times, the manufacturer asked, the amount of 1.9 yuan, the actual payment of 2.7 yuan.

Li Jian disclosed that when the mask was requisitioned by the government, the compensation basis was still 1.9 yuan. His company had several such losses.

Li Jian also lost the list because the price changes too fast. It was in mid March, an order from the United States of 1 million N95 masks, a domestic agent to find Li Jian after receiving orders. The first time he quoted a company that had exported to the United States with complete qualifications was 10 yuan. The time was on a Friday (March 13th). The agent reported to the US side that it contained a tax price of 14 yuan. The US side has no objection to the price, but due to the time difference, the process of signing the contract has been delayed.

By next Monday, the manufacturer will announce all the contracts that have not been signed, and the price will be adjusted to 14 yuan. Li Jian and agents did not dare to increase the price directly on this basis by 4 yuan, but reported a price of 16 yuan. The US side is very angry about this and accuses Li Jian and agents of not being honest. The price can not be agreed, and the business has not been made at last. Li Jian also did not expect manufacturers to become so fast, "maybe when the outbreak of the US epidemic just broke out, manufacturers felt that foreign demand suddenly increased, and temporarily adjusted the price."

"Do not listen to those who claim to have goods."

In mid April, Wang Hong spent three days at the gate of the victory mask factory in Shanghai, waiting for the 1 million N95 masks to be delivered a week ago.

Shanghai Dasheng mask factory (Shanghai Dasheng sanitary products manufacturing Co., Ltd.) is a star manufacturer in the epidemic. Shanghai victory, founded in 1997, originally exported business, and passed several international standards accreditation, such as the United States, the European Union, Australia and Japan. According to Wang Hong's introduction, before the epidemic, just like the victory, there were only seven or eight export qualified manufacturers specializing in foreign trade. Because the new export qualification requires a longer period of application and approval, the mask of these manufacturers has become a hot commodity in the international market.

Wang Hong's order was not directly related to the mask factory, but rather to the "intermediary side". He signed an order with a friend who claimed to be able to win the mask by a friend. The price was 18 yuan. Wang Hong made the payment on that day and confirmed delivery in 4 days. However, at the time of delivery, the other side shirk that the goods were too tight and needed to be postponed to ten days. On the tenth day, Wang Hong and his colleagues drove from Nanjing to the gate of Shanghai Dasheng factory in order to ensure that they could get the goods.

The first day arrives at nine a.m., until ten, the intermediary replied that it will take second days for shipment. On the second day, Wang Hong did not hear from noon until seven or eight p.m. On the third day, Wang Hong, who had not seen the goods at the factory gate until ten o'clock in the evening, sent a circle of friends: "the first roadside and other goods, a sad feeling!"

Many days later, when I remember it again, Wang Hong can laugh and talk about that particular experience, which is the scene mentioned at the beginning of this article.

At that time, there were no less than 300 people at the gate of the factory, and some of them were scalping masks. Some of them were called "swindlers", and a large proportion of them were waiting for goods anxiously, just as he did. In his view, these people were "deceived".

Wang Hong said that in the end, it was basically "totally annihilated". Everyone seemed disappointed, either in the name of a curse or in a quarrel. He saw two women holding a man's tie and said to the man, "1 million masks must be delivered today!" Wang Hong later learned that the two women had already paid 2 million 500 thousand masks, but they had not yet waited for the goods. The man with the tie is also an intermediary. By contrast, Wang Hong felt that he was even worse - he did not even see "mediate" figures.

Seeing that there was no hope of delivery, Wang Hong asked for a refund. But the other side still takes the delaying tactic, saying that it will be available after 10-15 days. Until the "threat" was reported, the other side returned three times.

In fact, when Wang Hong arrived at the factory gate waiting for the goods, he was also trying to see if he could buy other stock. A middlemen contacted during the period, the other side quoted 28 yuan. As for the specific stock, Wang Hong did not talk about it again. "From 18 yuan to 28 yuan, the price is too high." Moreover, the identity of the Contractor's decoration contractor makes it impossible for Wang Hong, a medical circle, to trust him: "he knows nothing about medical treatment."

After failing to wait for goods in Shanghai, Wang Hong suggested that he could turn to Shandong's Rizhao Sanqi with the same export qualification. "The situation at Sanqi gate is almost the same as that of victory," but Wang Hong has already learned the lesson. He didn't pay the bill this time, and asked to sign the contract directly with the factory, so he could sign the contract for the intermediary's fee of the intermediary.

Wang Hong signed a contract with Sanqi for 15.4 yuan, plus 3.6 yuan for intermediary fee, 0.5 yuan for hard work, and 19.5 yuan for a N95 mask to Wang Hong. Intermediary fees and referrals cost more than 20% of the total price, and he earns 0.5 yuan when he sells them to his home. He could not help feeling that the mediate party was blatant. "It makes people angry. He is just introducing, or just having resources, and failing to do something is nothing to do with him. He has no risk at all."

When Wang Hong tried to enter the factory area with confidence, he was stopped, and the security guard told him that there was no surplus production capacity.

He did not give up his heart, and stayed in sunshine for two days. Although the contract has bypassed intermediation, the order is still "yellow".

There are many export orders, but business is not so good.

At the beginning of the epidemic, Li Jian was dragged into a WeChat group. "At that time, we mostly helped each other". Later, the group became a trading group. People kept saying that they had what they needed, and that they needed WeChat to chat alone.

At the end of February, Li Jian discovered that orders for masks exported abroad were much larger. In addition to the American orders, Li Jian also received several overseas orders.

According to statistics from China Customs, from March 1st to April 25th, the total number of masks was 21 billion 100 million.

At the end of April, Li Jian said he didn't do it single. In addition to sudden changes in prices, manufacturers and other reasons, there is one of the most important questions - qualification.

In early March, an order for 5 million disposable medical masks from Slovakia was ultimately unsuccessful because of qualification problems. At that time, the demand side of Slovakia directly found the order of a large state-owned enterprise in China. Li Jianbang, a state-owned enterprise, was linked to a manufacturer that exported European qualifications. However, after inspection in Slovakia, the manufacturer's CE certification (product safety certification) was issued by Germany. They were worried that the goods would be detained by Germany. Germany had withheld the mask materials from Switzerland and Italy and asked for other related qualifications.

Li Jian's proposal is to ask Slovakia to place orders first, the application of qualification and mask production can be carried out simultaneously. But when the other party dragged on without payment, the manufacturer left the production line to other buyers.

Another one, when the last step was discussed, Li Jian and his two partners even managed to earn 3 million, but in the end it was still because the demand side was uncertain about their qualifications.

After the outbreak of overseas epidemic, domestic mask manufacturers also sprang up a qualification application tide. However, taking the European CE certification as an example, the newly applied CE certification mostly came from the CE agency without issuing the qualification. According to the combing of the China market supervision administration, only 8 institutions in China have the CE authentication ability of the epidemic prevention products. Those "fake CE" products can not actually be certified by foreign buyers.

However, as the epidemic intensifies, the overseas countries urgently need a large number of masks and begin to relax their requirements for import qualification.

Take the United States as an example, in April 3rd, FDA decided that the disposable respirator respirator approved by the National Institute of occupational safety and health in China, which was allowed to be produced in China, could be imported to the United States by means of emergency use authorization (EUA), as long as it met the criteria set by other countries or examined by an independent laboratory in April 3rd. Because of this exemption Ordinance, the list of Chinese mask manufacturers made by FDA has increased to 80. One industry insider said that this stage of the United States is "take all the bills, you have everything I want."

At the same time, China is also strengthening the supervision of the export of medical materials. According to the announcement of the Ministry of Commerce, the General Administration of customs and the State Administration of drug administration, from April 1st onwards, enterprises exporting new coronavirus test reagents, medical masks, medical protective clothing, respirators and infrared thermometers must submit written or electronic declarations to the customs to declare that the export products have obtained the registration certificate of medical devices in China, which is in conformity with the quality standard requirements of the importing countries (regions). 。

The latest news is that in May 7th, FDA withdrew permission from 66 Chinese manufacturers to export N95 masks to the United States, that is, the list of 80 previously reduced to 14. The mask that has signed the bill still does not know what fate is.

"Inadvertently inserting willows and willows into a shade"

According to Li Jian's estimate, about 20% of the 360 people in his WeChat group made a fortune in the epidemic. "Earn money, buy the Shanghai house at random," Li Jian described the huge profits of the mask business.

In the eyes of Wang Hong, only 20% of the masks were looked at in the market, and the rest 80% were "fooling around". "Whatever cloth they want, some are not even melt blown cloth, they can also be sold in the market."

Wang Hong used "chicken feather in one place" to describe the market chaos of masks after the epidemic. In addition to quality problems, we have to follow suit.

Beside him, many friends bought several mask machines and put them in their homes, then they tried to do an emergency filing. However, since late February, drug regulatory departments have issued new regulations on the production of medical protective clothing and medical masks, or the emergency records have been changed to emergency examination or approval. With the further strengthening of supervision, there is no room for masks that do not meet the relevant requirements.

More importantly, those manufacturers who are anxious to switch production and follow suit will often not have the professional ability to produce medical consumables. "Medical care itself is a highly standardized and strict industry". Wang Hong said that the production environment, including disinfection, sterilization and packaging, has not received enough attention in these new factories. "Strictly speaking, they can't produce medical products at all."

In Wang Hong's view, with the domestic epidemic situation easing down, the watershed of mask manufacturers has arrived. If we do not make any changes, we will be eliminated if we do not strictly regulate production according to the quality system.

But at the same time, mask manufacturers are also facing great opportunities. Because many people are still considering the current epidemic situation, rather than what to do after the outbreak. Wang Hong believes that the demand for masks will be higher and higher in the future medical institutions and the general public.

Just a few days after Shanghai's victory and sunshine, Wang Hong received a list of purchase intentions for medical supplies from a stomatological hospital in Xiaogan, Hubei.

Previously, Wang Hong has been doing medical services business, procurement rarely intervene. The unexpected order came as a surprise to him. Later, he learned that the director of the stomatological hospital was a member of the leading group of Xiaogan's epidemic prevention and control. It was very clear about Wang Hong's donation and public service action during the epidemic. Based on the trust established during the epidemic, the hospital gave the order to Wang Hong and asked him to organize the supply of goods.

"It usually takes a lot of time to contact the hospital and visit the dean. But this time, we didn't know each other. We didn't see each other before, and the telephone was not passed, so I gave the order to me. This is because the trust relationship established during the epidemic is different and solid. Wang Hong was very happy. In his view, the masks donated at that time became a "meeting ritual" and, at a relatively low cost, a new customer was obtained at a relatively low cost.

This event has also made Wang Hong realize that if he can build a trust relationship with a respirator, other products besides masks can also be radiated. This is opportunity.