Chinese syringe producers under pressure as COVID-19 vaccination programmes drive order surge
02 February, 2021
Chinese syringe makers are warning that they could only manage to fulfil some orders as late as June, as global coronavirus vaccination programmes put unprecedented degrees of pressure on the factory lines and snarl the country's own vaccine efforts.
Companies told Reuters that these were working night and day, raising prices and trying to expand factory lines. China and India are the world's biggest producers of syringes, sector executives said.
Zhejiang KangKang Medical Devices started getting export contracts for 10 million to 20 million syringes each found in December, compared with order sizes around 5 million each before the pandemic, because of overseas vaccination programmes, Guo Chun, its basic manager, told Reuters.
The business, a unit of Wanbangde Pharmaceutical Holding, was adding capacity to quadruple its production for several types of syringes by May, but until then can only just partly fulfil large orders, he said.
"We are incredibly careful in taking in brand-new orders now," explained an office manager surnamed Yang at another manufacturer, Shandong Qiaosen, a supplier to Becton Dickinson that's located in the northern Chinese metropolis of Shandong. He declined to give his full name.
Yang said orders received by his factory this month needs to now wait until May or June to be fulfilled.
More than 90 % of Qiaosen's orders were from China prior to the pandemic but foreign orders are increasing, he added. Orders are filled on an initial come, first dished up basis with no priority by country.
Countries all over the world have within the last month kicked off ambitious vaccination campaigns to regulate the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
In America, the administration of new President Joe Biden aims to provide 100 million vaccinations in its primary 100 days.
Its effort to squeeze more doses from Pfizer's vaccine vials is spurring unanticipated demand for specialised syringes, which US syringe supplier Becton Dickinson and Co says exceeds existing capacity, Reuters reported the other day.
Prices of syringes have more than tripled from 0.1 yuan (1.55 cents) each prior to the outbreak to a lot more than 0.3 yuan now, KangKang's Guo stated. At Shandong Qiaosen, a lot more than 1,000 employees are now working on three shifts and machines happen to be being run 24 hours a day，Yang said.
Yang said ramping up development is becoming especially frenzied in the run-up to China's weeklong Lunar New Season holiday, which starts on Feb 11, when businesses traditionally allow workers to be on leave and turn off factory lines.
New equipment is only going to be ready after the holiday, he added.
"It's bound to have an effect on our output, but yearly this time we give our staff any occasion," Yang said.
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