With China needing virus masks, phone and diaper makers fill void
13 February, 2020
A diaper manufacturer in eastern China was closed for the Chinese New Year holiday when it heard from officials - China needed vast amounts of masks to fight a deadly virus epidemic and factories needed to contribute .
In just over two days, New Yifa Group converted a producing line in Fujian province to form face masks, tapping a number of its materials that might have gone into hygiene products.
"All our staff are performing on the masks now," the group's vice-president Shen Shengyuan told AFP during a phone interview.
He added that the road can produce up to 600,000 mask pieces each day and therefore the company is looking to convert another nappy assembly line soon.
Companies across China - from iPhone maker Foxconn to car maker BYD and garment factories - have made similar forays into protective gear because the country grapples with a shortage of medical equipment to stop the virus from spreading.
To date, the virus has killed quite 1,350 people and infected some 60,000, sparking fear across the world and causing people to refill on protective supplies.
Authorities said this month that China urgently needed masks, especially at the epicentre of the crisis, Hubei, where doctors face a shortage.
At full capacity, Chinese factories can only produce around 20 million masks each day .
While over 76 per cent of mask producers and 77 per cent of protective suit makers had resumed work as of Feb 10 in 22 regions, there remains a significant shortage of masks and other protective supplies, officials said in the week .
US$6 MILLION HIT
Doctors on the battlefront in Wuhan - the epicentre of the outbreak - have had to ascertain patients without proper masks or protective body suits, resorting to reusing an equivalent equipment.
Manufacturers are stepping up, but this comes at a price , with New Yifa Group postponing a US$6 million order to specialise in mask production.
But Shen is confident the government in Putian city, where the firm is predicated , will help companies like his bridge over .
In other cities like Ningbo in eastern Zhejiang province, 14 garment manufacturers are looking to supply 1,000,000 masks in 20 days, reported Xinhua on Wednesday.
Chinese automaker BYD said during a statement that it had been looking into the planning and making of protective gear, to supply masks and disinfectant.
BYD expects to form up to 5 million masks and 50,000 bottles of disinfectant each day by the top of the month.
It plans to start out production by Monday and told AFP the masks will attend hospitals and seriously-affected areas, among others.
Others that have stepped in include a General Motors venture in China, SAIC-GM-Wuling, and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec).
Sinopec said on China's Twitter-like platform Weibo on Sunday that it had been fixing 11 production lines with partners and targets making up to over 1,000,000 masks each day by March 10.
Taiwan tech giant Foxconn, which assembles Apple products, also said during a social media post last week that it started producing masks at a plant in Shenzhen.
It expects to form up to 2 million masks each day by end-February.
The masks are going to be supplied to its own workers, and may be distributed externally where needed.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com