Chinanews.com Client, Beijing, March 5th Question: What is more scarce than a mask? Masks cannot prevent viruses without it

Author Peng Jingru

"I have a meltblown cloth. Who has a mask machine?"

On February 6, Sinopec stated that it had melt-blown materials for the production of masks in its hands and wanted to find a mask machine to coordinate the production of masks. But recently, meltblown cloth has become tense, which in turn has become the object of competition for mask manufacturers. After all, if there is no flour (meltblown cloth), the whole roll (mask) ...

Data sheet: Workers are making masks. Photo by Tang Yanjun

I have a mask machine and no meltblown cloth

When Sinopec's original shout came to BYD, which produced masks across borders, it became: "We have a mask production line, but we can't buy meltblown cloth."

BYD employees told the media, "The company currently needs 5 tons of meltblown cloth a day. We found a company that signed more than ten tons of meltblown cloth, which is only enough for two or three days of use, and it takes about one month to arrive."

More than BYD's family is lacking. A person in charge of a mask factory reported that the purchase price of meltblown cloth from some manufacturers reached 150,000 yuan / ton, and it was still difficult to buy a spot meltblown cloth. Several mask factories ran out of inventory.

Many mask manufacturers in Xiantao, Hubei, told reporters that there are currently stocks of ordinary disposable masks, but medical masks are not available because of insufficient raw materials. It is understood that meltblown cloth is divided into civilian and medical, and what is urgently needed is medical grade standard materials.

A few days ago, the Changyuan City Science and Technology and Industry Information Bureau of Xinxiang, Henan also announced: "The local medical protective equipment manufacturing enterprises are responsible for the supply of important national epidemic prevention and control materials. To ensure the stable supply of epidemic materials, the city's health materials enterprises urgently need to melt Spray nonwovens. "

On February 19th, the staff of Jinyilun New Material Technology (Langfang) Co., Ltd., located in the High-tech Industrial Development Zone of Dachang Hui Autonomous County, Hebei Province, stepped up the production of meltblown cloth. Photo by China News Agency reporter Song Mintao

Meltblown cloth

The purchase price of melt-blown cloth is 150,000 yuan / ton, which is not the current highest price. Mr. Chen, who is responsible for the deployment of mask raw materials in some enterprises in Changyuan City, Xinxiang, Henan Province, told reporters that "the price of melt-blown cloth was less than 20,000 yuan / ton. Now it is quoting more than 300,000 yuan / ton, and even a high price of 400,000-500,000 yuan / ton. "

The reporter learned from a large energy company that it is not just domestic meltblown cloth prices that are rising, but global meltblown cloths are increasing prices. Due to the surge in orders, the meltblown cloth prices in some countries and regions have doubled or even 5 More than double the increase.

In the case of melt-blown cloth prices skyrocketing, Daun Co., Ltd., an upstream material manufacturer of melt-blown cloth, was also asked by investors because it did not raise prices. "Hello! It is said that the price of melt-blown cloth has risen more than 10 times with the market. Although the supply of materials is still in short supply, the price is still not rising. What is your company's consideration? It is recommended that your company, while fulfilling its social responsibility, respect the contributions of its employees, be responsible for its shareholders, and refrain from letting other companies look at jokes. "

"The price of 200,000 yuan per ton is for old customers, and new customers basically can't buy it," said a meltblown cloth trader in Shenzhen.

"I have recently received a lot of calls, and some are not regular meltblown cloth manufacturers at all. Those people are equivalent to making a fortune in the country." Mr. Chen said that he is now facing more than just raw materials and high prices. Many manufacturers have simply failed. Ca n’t pass the quality control. “We need to have a third-party monitoring report to collect the meltblown cloth, which meets the relevant quality requirements, or the company ca n’t use it.”

"If there is no meltblown cloth, production can only be temporarily suspended, and only masks that do not meet medical standards can be produced." Mr. Chen said.

Data Map: Meltblown cloth, commonly known as the "heart" of medical masks. Photo courtesy of Shanghai Petrochemical

Meltblown cloth: the "heart" of masks

Why is meltblown cloth so important? Because the meltblown cloth is the filter layer in the middle of the mask, in addition to blocking large dust particles, it can also absorb small dust, bacteria and virus droplets through the static charge on the surface. It is an important raw material for the production of masks, which is called The "heart" of N95 masks, KN95 masks, and medical masks.

It is understood that the medical mask contains at least 3 layers of non-woven fabric and has an SMS structure: a single layer of spunbond layer (S) on the inside and outside and a single layer or multiple layers of meltblown layer (M) on the middle. Meltblown cloth is the best material for meltblown layer.

These three layers are all non-woven, can't they be universal? No. The inner and outer spunbond layers protect against sweat and water, while the middle meltblown layer filters out germs, thereby preventing them from spreading. The fiber diameter of the S layer of the spunbond layer of the mask is about 1/3 of the hair, and the diameter of the M fiber of the meltblown layer is close to 1/30 of the hair, which is thinner by comparison, so the manufacturing process and process of the two are also different.

The process from raw materials to masks. Photo courtesy of Sinopec

Meltblown cloth prices increase because of upstream raw material prices?

From raw materials to masks, there are basically four links, one is polypropylene raw materials, the other is meltblown material, the third is meltblown cloth, and the fourth is mask production. If masks are compared to flower rolls, Sinopec is producing wheat (common wheat), producing meltblown material is equivalent to making flour, meltblown cloth is equivalent to making dough, and mask processing plants are finally processed into flower rolls.

China's largest supplier of medical raw materials, Sinopec, said that its polypropylene output is about 8 million tons, of which about 1 million tons are used for the production of medical supplies every year. China produced 6 billion masks last year, and the required polypropylene was 20,000 to 30,000 tons, not even a fraction. It can produce polypropylene in sufficient quantities to supply the market.

The reporter noticed that, in fact, the price of polypropylene, the main raw material for medical supplies (including masks), was in a state of decline. The price of polypropylene in January was around 7,500 yuan / ton, and fell to below 7,000 yuan / ton at the end of February, a decrease of about 10%.

Meltblown material prices have also recently pulled back. According to the data of Longzhong Information, the mainstream quotation of meltblown material (MFI1500g / 10min) is about 15,000 yuan / ton, a slight callback of 300-500 yuan / ton from last week, and an increase of 3500-4000 yuan / ton from the Spring Festival, an increase of 34.78%. .

According to experts from meltblown materials companies, at present, domestic meltblown materials can be adequately supplied. If calculated according to the daily output of 100 million masks, the meltblown material required per day is about 100 tons. In 2019, China's meltblown material production capacity is 100,000 tons (output 70,000 tons), and it is expected that it will increase 150,000 tons capacity in the near future, totaling 250,000 tons. After gradually returning to production, it can meet the needs.

Seeing here is not confusing, why the raw material capacity is sufficient, the price has dropped, and the meltblown cloth is so expensive?

Dou Likun, a polypropylene analyst at Longzhong Information, said that after the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia, in addition to the existing mask companies actively increasing their production and load production, a large number of new mask production capacity has emerged in the market. Among them, large manufacturing companies such as BYD, SAIC Wuling, Foxconn This situation has exacerbated the tight supply of domestic raw materials, especially meltblown cloth.

On February 19th, the staff of Jinyilun New Material Technology (Langfang) Co., Ltd., located in the High-tech Industrial Development Zone of Dachang Hui Autonomous County, Hebei Province, was packing the produced meltblown nonwovens. Photo by China News Agency reporter Song Mintao

Can meltblown cloth expand quickly? not that simple

What confuses many people is that car companies, clothing factories, etc. have switched to production of masks, and enterprises that originally produced masks are also struggling to increase horsepower production. Why can't meltblown cloth take similar measures?

"Before the national meltblown cloth demand was not large, so only a limited production line continued to produce." Some industry practitioners said that the meltblown cloth production cycle is too long, even if the new production line is now opened, it can only be shipped after 8 months. .

Yu Xiaoning, chairman of Shandong Daon Polymer Materials Co., Ltd. said that the production line of meltblown cloth has a large investment, the equipment production and installation cycle is relatively long, and there are not many manufacturers that can provide key components. "Because the investment is relatively large and the cycle is long, everyone is afraid that the demand will not wait until the construction is completed, so the investment enthusiasm is not so high. On the last mask production line, if there is equipment, it can be half a month and twenty days."

But don't be too pessimistic. According to industry insiders, after the Spring Festival, as the melt blown cloth market resources are tightening, some domestic companies have urgently ordered the key equipment of the melt blown cloth production device. It is expected that more than 100 melt spray heads are currently being ordered and produced. The production capacity will be above 200 tons / day.

"After March, the tight supply in the meltblown cloth market will gradually ease. The production capacity of domestic meltblown cloth will continue to increase in the first half of the year. It is expected that the cumulative production capacity and conversion capacity will be close to 300 tons / day, which can meet 300 million pieces / day masks. Demand for production materials. "

So, is the meltblown cloth already on the road? Are the masks far from us?