Ascompaniesresumeworkinanorderlymanner,thedemandformaskshasincreasedsignificantly,andthe”onemaskishardtofind”situationwillbeshort-term.Hardtochange.Accordingtodatafrom”Tianyancha”,fromJanuary1toFebruary7,2020,morethan3,000companiesacrossthecountryadded”masks,protectiveclothing” and other businesses to their business scope. However, compared with mask manufacturers, the raw materials for masks are melt-blown. Cloth production capacity is limited.
According to statistics from the China Industrial Textiles Industry Association, the production process of China’s nonwovens industry is dominated by spunbond. In 2018, the output of spunbond nonwovens was 2.9712 million tons, accounting for 50% of the total nonwovens output, and was mainly used in fields such as sanitary materials; the melt-blown process accounted for only 0.9%. In 2018, the domestic output of melt-blown nonwovens was 53,500 tons/year. ——These melt-blown cloths are not only used for masks, but also for environmental protection materials, clothing materials, battery separator materials, wiping materials, etc.
According to we learned that due to the extreme shortage of raw materials, a number of mask factories have stopped production one after another! Please see the report below for details!
A number of mask factories have stopped production!
(Picture source: Internet)
Judging from the announcements of the above-mentioned companies
The reasons for the suspension of production are all related to raw materials, especially melt-blown cloth
“I have a mask production line, but I can’t buy meltblown cloth” is the current problem faced by mask production. For companies that specialize in the production of masks, or companies that produce cross-border masks ,it’s the same.
A few days ago, BYD, a cross-border manufacturer of masks and disinfectants, said in an interview with Jiemian News that the company is currently mobilizing employees to search for sources of meltblown cloth. They found a company in Henan and signed a contract for 14 tons of melt-blown cloth. However, the company currently needs 5 tons of melt-blown cloth a day, which is only enough for two or three days, and it takes about a month to arrive.
A Hainan company engaged in agricultural business also urgently purchased mask machines to build a production line so that agricultural production would not be affected, hoping to connect with sufficient meltblown cloth resources. It is understood that the company has contacted Sinopec, but meltblown cloth is still in short supply.
Currently, the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic is still spreading, and the national mask production capacity has stepped up its recovery. However, facing a huge gap, supply still exceeds demand. In order to ease the pressure on mask supply, provinces have also begun to encourage qualified companies to switch to mask production. However, there is currently a very important problem in the production of masks-it is stuck in the melt-blown cloth link.
Melt-blown cloth is out of stock across the country, and a large number of companies have switched to producing masks. There is not enough melt-blown cloth to supply the market, which affects the production progress of masks. Then there was the situation mentioned at the beginning of the company – production was suspended due to a shortage of core raw material meltblown cloth.
Melt-blown cloth, one price a day
Why do mask companies Looking for melt blown fabric? Because meltblown cloth is an important material for the production of medical surgical masks and N95 masks, and is the “heart” of masks.
Take a medical surgical mask as an example. It consists of a mask body and a tensioning belt. The mask body is divided into three layers: inner, middle and outer layers:
The inner layer is made of skin-friendly material: ordinary sanitary gauze or non-woven fabric;
The middle layer is an isolation filter layer: ultra-fine polypropylene fiber melt-blown material layer ;
The outer layer is a special material antibacterial layer: non-woven fabric or ultra-thin polypropylene melt-blown material layer.
(Picture source: Internet)
It is reported that an ordinary flat mask requires about 1g It is composed of meltblown cloth + 2g spunbond cloth; and an N95 mask requires about 3~4g meltblown cloth + 4g spunbond cloth.
The main reason for the insufficient supply of mask production capacity is that there is a shortage of equipment and raw materials in the mask production line. Meltblown cloth, as one of the important raw materials for the production of masks, has long been declared in short supply.
Under the new coronavirus epidemic, the market situation of meltblown cloth has reached its extreme. It is hard to find a cloth on the market, and its price has been reduced from the original 18,000 yuan/ton. The price is 200,000 to 400,000/ton. Some mask manufacturers said that the price of meltblown cloth will increase exponentially after the new year, which can be said to be one price per day.
As a result, many mask manufacturers have stopped accepting orders. Relevant company sources revealed, “Not only is it scarce, meltblown fabric manufacturers have already scheduled their schedules until March, and some are even fully booked in April. It can be said that meltblown non-woven fabrics are no longer available.” Orders from many channel companies are signed before. Nowadays, they are all produced to order. Once they are sold out, if you want to ask for them again, they will be gone and you will not be able to get the goods at all.
This situation has also allowed many criminals to take advantage of the loopholes. In order to make huge profits, extremely low-quality, cheap, and substandard raw materials are used, and some even directly omit the most important part in the middle.Replace the spray cloth filter layer with ordinary non-woven fabric. Such masks do not filter out viruses at all and may cause harm to the body.
There are only 103 meltblown cloth companies in the country
my country’s meltblown cloth companies Sprayed non-woven fabrics are relatively niche and are mainly used to produce masks, environmentally friendly materials, clothing, battery separators and other products.
According to statistics from the China Industrial Textiles Industry Association, the production process of China’s nonwovens industry is dominated by spunbond. In 2018, the output of spunbond nonwovens was 2.9712 million tons, accounting for 50% of the total nonwovens output, and was mainly used in fields such as sanitary materials; the melt-blown process accounted for only 0.9%.
Data show that my country’s annual output of various types of nonwovens reached 5.9322 million tons in 2018, an increase of 196.31% compared with 2008. Based on the calculation that my country’s melt-blown non-woven fabrics account for 0.9% of non-woven fabric production, my country’s melt-blown non-woven fabric production in 2018 was only about 53,400 tons.
Relevant data shows that 1.5 tons of melt-blown cloth can produce more than 2 million medical masks. During the epidemic, to meet the huge demand for masks in the market, the core is to add meltblown cloth production capacity.
Some people in the industry said that melt-blown equipment needs to be customized, and the delivery cycle is at least three months. In addition, the production cost is high and production is difficult, so it is not possible to quickly release production capacity in the short term. There are related equipment manufacturers in China, but the production capacity of the equipment is too small and cannot be compared with imported equipment. It can be seen that if you want to add new production capacity, it is very difficult to operate in terms of investment cycle.
According to QiChacha Professional Edition data, there are only 103 companies with “melt-blown cloth” as the keyword and whose business scope includes melt-blown cloth.
Among them, Guangdong Province has the most, with 17, followed by Jiangsu and Shandong provinces, both with 12, and Henan with 10.
Attachment: Address list of mask melt-blown cloth manufacturers
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