Masks, masks! Now that we have returned to work, people are asking, where can I buy masks?
Recently, reporters have continued to conduct in-depth investigations on this issue and learned that the current shortage of protective products such as masks and disinfectants on the market is closely related to factors such as insufficient labor and shortage of raw materials. Many heads of production companies asked reporters to call on them to speed up the flow of cross-regional raw materials, use market means to resolve problems, and encourage upstream suppliers to start work as soon as possible to alleviate the current tight supply situation.
↑On January 28, in the production workshop of Lantian Hewu Holdings Co., Ltd. in Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou, Zhu Guojun, a member of the Red Boat Communist Service Team of State Grid Zhejiang Electric Power (Xiaoshan) and Colleagues are carefully checking the operation of lines and electrical equipment. Next to them, a group of “fully armed” workers wearing disinfection equipment were operating electric sewing machines and working hard to make sets of protective clothing. These protective suits will be sent to major medical institutions to provide protection for medical workers on the front lines of novel coronavirus prevention and control. Photos provided by the company.
Bottleneck 1: Insufficient workers
Shortage of manpower is a common problem faced by many enterprises problem. The outbreak of pneumonia caused by the new coronavirus coincided with the Spring Festival holiday, and the operations of most enterprises were at a standstill or semi-standstill.
Zhejiang Oujie Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Oujie Technology) is the only medical device manufacturer in Huzhou that has a registration certificate for disposable medical masks. It is also the main disinfectant manufacturer in the country. After the outbreak, The company paid three times the salary and urgently recalled employees to work overtime. “We started producing masks on the second day of junior high school. The two medical mask production lines operate in two shifts every day, and can produce about 100,000 pieces a day. However, due to the impact of the epidemic, the company’s current employees are only 70% of the normal number, and wages have increased. , costs are rising, and the price of masks cannot be increased, which still puts pressure on production.” said a person in charge of the company.
Changyuan City in Henan Province is one of the three major material bases in the country and is especially famous for its masks. Mask sales account for “half of the national market”. The local Gore Medical has two surgical mask production lines and six ordinary mask production lines. It requires more than 100 employees to carry the masks at full capacity. After the outbreak of the epidemic, only more than 20 people returned to work overtime, and the factory directly sent vehicles to the villages to pick up people, take care of food and housing, and paid three times the salary every day. From 9 pm to 1 am, the overtime pay was 200 yuan. Some workers have been working for 24 hours straight.
In Xiamen, Fujian, the situation is also not optimistic. According to the person in charge, there are currently a shortage of front-line production workers. Although some employees who were on holiday have been recalled on the second day of the new year, workers from Hubei and other places are temporarily unable to come to work.
In order to ensure output, mask manufacturers have overcome many difficulties.
Bottleneck 2: Delivery is difficult and expensive
The shortage of masks and the government Unified allocation of production capacity is also relevant. When resources are relatively scarce, priority should be given to ensuring the supply of front-line medical staff and areas with severe epidemics. According to the relevant person in charge of Oujie Technology, 90% of the masks produced by the company are purchased by local governments, mainly to meet the needs of the most needy groups. This supply method during this special period has greatly reduced the market supply.
The production capacity allocated by enterprises themselves faces the difficulty of poor logistics. Many companies said that due to the Spring Festival holiday and the epidemic, most logistics companies have closed down. Only SF Express can still deliver goods, but there are very few people left, and it is difficult to deliver goods as fast as usual. In addition, the price of delivery is also rising. For example, with SF Express, each box of masks weighs around 20 kilograms, but the freight has risen to more than 200 yuan to more than 300 yuan.
However, with the efforts of logistics companies, the problem is being alleviated. On January 30, doctors from Wuhan Union Hospital once again released information asking for help. At the critical moment, nine provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country reached out to help and donated precious stored materials, hoping to be sent directly to Union Hospital. Some donation units are located in remote areas, and logistics and transportation are difficult during the Spring Festival. Each unit cannot find a transportation company on its own. Cainiao Green Transportation Channel responded immediately and immediately mobilized express companies such as Zhongtong, YTO, Yunda, and Debon to coordinate national transportation capacity and rush to 40 donation units to receive goods.
According to statistics, a total of more than 300,000 pieces of aid materials came from 40 units in 9 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities). From accepting the task to emergency mobilization of aviation, vehicles, and drivers across the country, until all were delivered Union Hospital only took 3 days.
As logistics companies speed up the organization of emergency plans and courier boys return to work, I believe that logistics problems can be effectively solved soon.
Bottleneck 3: Raw materials are in short supply
It is difficult for a clever woman to make a meal without rice. The biggest constraint for medical protective product manufacturers is the shortage of raw materials. Like many companies, Gore Medical’s mask raw materials were once in short supply. According to its person in charge, the company’s production lines could not guarantee operation at half capacity, and even stopped production for a time. On New Year’s Eve…All the raw materials were used up, and even the plastic packaging bags were gone. We could only stop work for one day on New Year’s Day and wait for the materials to be in place before starting again.
Along with the shortage of raw materials is the rise in raw material prices. When the price of mask products does not increase, many companies are “producing at a loss”, but the biggest headache for companies is not the rising prices.
“We can all accept that the price of raw materials is a little higher. In the event of an epidemic, companies should assume social responsibilities. But now all kinds of raw materials for the production of protective products and disinfection products , and even packaging materials are not allowed to be sold to manufacturers in other provinces, which prevents smooth circulation. The original smooth industrial supply chain is interrupted, production and supply efficiency is greatly reduced, and market demand cannot be met.” An anonymous person from Oujie Technology said The person in charge told reporters. The person in charge said that taking masks as an example, the outer packaging of the masks produced by the company comes from areas outside Zhejiang Province. Due to the inter-provincial control of raw materials by other provinces, there are now 100,000 gaps in the packaging cartons of the company’s mask products and as many as 50 gaps in the disinfectant products. 10,000, causing the product to be unable to be shipped. In addition to packaging, mask ear strap materials, disinfectant containers and bottles, alcohol raw materials, etc. all face similar problems.
The reporter learned that the cross-regional supply of raw materials for protective equipment is blocked, which is a new situation currently emerging. Different provinces have different production capabilities in medical protective equipment. Some provinces have strong production capabilities, but rely on raw materials from other provinces; some provinces have a large output of raw materials, but do not have the ability to manufacture finished products on a large scale. Due to cross-provincial controls, companies with large-scale manufacturing capabilities can only reduce or even stop production when their inventory of raw materials is exhausted, resulting in an even greater shortage of market supply.
In this regard, many protective equipment manufacturers have called for the lifting of local controls on raw materials for protective equipment during extraordinary times, promoting and accelerating the flow of regional materials, maintaining the integrity and smoothness of the supply chain, and forming efficient production. The supply system allows major production companies to have no worries about raw materials and ensures market supply.
At the time of press release, Wang Jiangping, a member of the Central Steering Group and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, was being interviewed by a CCTV reporter. He introduced that my country’s largest mask production capacity is 20 million masks per day, and there are only 2.2 million medical masks, while doctors There are only 600,000 N95s used in intensive care units. At present, the epidemic situation has a huge gap. He said that on the one hand, manufacturing companies must operate at full capacity, and intensive care units should take measures to uniformly allocate supplies. More importantly, everyone should try not to occupy special protective equipment resources. Ordinary surgical masks can definitely do this. Daily protection.
There are many ways to do it. With the holiday over and work starting at full strength, I believe the mask problem will no longer be unsolvable.
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