China News Service Client, Beijing, March 4th (Reporter Wu Tao) China's mask production capacity and output have exceeded 100 million yuan!

Are you shocked by the news and start thinking: Can I buy a mask?

You try it and you know the answer, "Masks are still hard to buy."

E-commerce insiders can't buy masks

"After the news that the production capacity of masks exceeded 100 million yuan, I hurriedly called the surrounding pharmacies to see if there were masks. Although I felt hope was slim, I still wanted my boss to tell me the answer so that I could die."

JD.com searches for "masks" and pharmacies around it show "No such products".

Sure enough, the daily output of masks is over 100 million, but pharmacies are still out of stock! The reporter searched for "masks" on Jingdong Medicine Emergency Delivery (ie, nearby pharmacies) and Meituan. Many pharmacies displayed "No such product" or only dust masks.

Are there any masks on the e-commerce platform? The reporter noticed that currently there are a number of masks on the e-commerce platform, but it is still a priority for Hubei.

Relevant staff of JD.com told reporters from Chinanews.com that the first batch of 15 million masks will be sold in JD.com starting from the 3rd. Each user is limited to a total of 200 packs of 4 packs. Regional users.

Ali also stated that starting from March 2nd, Hubei residents will receive an affordable mask delivered from SF to their homes by placing an order directly with Tmall without making an appointment. It will cost 2 yuan per piece and 3 million pieces will be exclusively for Hubei.

As for how to buy masks outside Hubei, JD.com said that it can make appointment purchases through the "Mask Daily Reservation Restrictions Purchase" page.

This is also the current mask sales method adopted by most e-commerce platforms: make an appointment first, then snap up, and leave the rest to luck. Some netizens said, "I robbed me for a week without giving up and gave up treatment."

Many home appliance platforms show that appointments to buy masks are sold out. Screenshot of an e-commerce platform

The reporter noticed that many masks sold by e-commerce companies are not domestically produced. For example, Xiaomi Youpin and Netease strictly select masks from time to time, or buy them daily, mainly selling imported masks marked "Korea KF94".

Of course, such appointments are also limited. For example, JD.com told reporters on Chinanews.com that 500,000 masks are on sale every day for users across the country, and basically sold out within 1 minute. More e-commerce platforms are sold out instantly, or they are always showing out of stock status.

Insiders from more than one e-commerce platform told reporters from the China News Service, "We also go to the line every day to grab masks. Like you, we can't."

Why are masks still difficult to buy?

Speaking of which, many people inevitably have doubts: more than 100 million pieces are produced every day. Why are masks still difficult to buy?

At first, 100 million sounds a lot, but in fact it is still not much compared with the number of masks currently required by China.

According to the analysis of Huachuang Securities, China's total employment in the secondary and tertiary industries is 530 million. If full resumption of work, at least 530 million masks are needed every day; if only the secondary industry, medical and transportation workers resume work, 238 million masks are needed every day.

Data on employees in related industries of the Fourth National Economic Census. Image source: Screenshot from National Bureau of Statistics

Calculated in another way, according to the Fourth National Economic Census, as of the end of 2018, there were 11.478 million health and social practitioners in China, 14.348 million in transportation, storage and postal services, and 10.471.3 million in manufacturing.

Even if these people resume work, one mask per person per day will require more than 100 million pieces. This does not include infrastructure management practitioners such as public management, water and electricity.

According to the "China Statistical Yearbook-2019" published by the National Bureau of Statistics, by 2018, there will be 213 million people in the secondary industry in China. According to the above conditions, if the tertiary industry is completely stopped, only the employees in the secondary industry will resume work, and more than 200 million masks will be needed every day.

Image source: Screenshot from the official website of the National Bureau of Statistics.

China is already the world's largest mask producer and exporter, but various calculations show that there was still a gap between supply and demand for masks during the epidemic. In addition, the production of masks is also limited by the raw material meltblown cloth.

Disposable medical masks have three layers, both sides are spunbond non-woven fabrics, and the middle layer is meltblown. The antivirus mainly relies on the middle layer of meltblown cloth. The reporter noticed that there was a lot of demand for meltblown cloth in the special supply and demand docking area for key medical prevention and control materials of the State Council. At around 22:00 on the 3rd, six of the top ten messages were for meltblown cloth.

On February 23, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology disclosed that the main material melt-blown cloth of Jiangxi Medical Protective Mask Company was repeatedly rushed. The melt-blown cloth was included in the overall planning of the Jiangxi Provincial Prevention and Control Command.

So it turned out to be "I have a meltblown cloth, who has a mask machine", and now the order is changed, "I have a mask machine, who has a meltblown cloth". A number of cross-border mask companies such as BYD have already "screamed" like this.

Sinopec claims that there is no shortage of raw materials for the production of meltblown cloth, and it has also cut prices. Image source: Screenshot from the official public account of Sinopec

Interestingly, polypropylene, the main raw material for the production of meltblown cloth, is not lacking, and the price has been reduced. On March 2, Sinopec stated that in February Sinopec produced 98,000 tons of medical raw materials such as polypropylene, an increase of 33,000 tons from January, an increase of 50.8%, and sufficient market supply.

It is not difficult to find out that if the production of masks is further accelerated, the expansion of the meltblown cloth link is very important. However, there are media reports that the cost of manufacturing meltblown cloth is relatively large. The price of domestic production equipment is about 5 million yuan, and the imported equipment is more than 10 million yuan. Coupled with the long production cycle, many companies tend to produce masks instead of Meltblown cloth.

Did you buy a mask now? If not, or wait patiently. (Finish)