China News Service Client, Beijing, June 9 (Zuo Yukun): I used to buy masks, but I couldn't buy them in the queue. Now, those who sell masks line up and go to the "roof".
A few months have passed, and the hard-to-get commodity masks that were hard to find are hard to find, but now they are everywhere. As for those mask traders who are walking on the cusp of the storm, they are divided into two very different lives.
Some people earn a lifetime of money in one month; others lose all the money earned in a lifetime in one month.
Data Map: There are sufficient supplies of masks in the pharmacy. Photo by Wu Pengquan
From long queues to casual purchases, the mask market " changed face"
A clerk from a pharmacy in Chaoyang District, Beijing told China News that there are nearly ten masks currently on sale, from disposable medical masks to medical surgical masks, to KN95 masks that girls have never seen before, and girls like to use. Korean version of KF94 three-dimensional masks and colorful children's masks are all available.
"It fell too fast, one price per batch", the clerk introduced to reporters one of the best-selling disposable medical masks now, "April is still an average of three or four, one pack of 20 only need only 36 dollars."
"We belong to a chain of pharmacies, and the goods must be taken from the factory. The prices are basically uniform. We sell as much as the factory price. The price of raw materials has fallen, the factory is cheaper, and our retail price is cheaper." The clerk explained Road.
Even if the price has dropped, it is different from the “purchase as much as you see” at the beginning of the year. The clerk said that recently everyone can buy one or two packages at most, and buy as you go. "People who come to buy masks mentioned that there may be a second wave of outbreaks in autumn and winter this year, but if they are hoarding masks, they will certainly be willing to buy cheaper online."
The clerk also mentioned that most of the people who recently came to buy masks went out and forgot to bring masks, and bought people who were in emergency. To this end, they also deliberately dismantled the mask, two dollars a, sales are quite good.
There are also three different styles of masks in the convenience drugstore in a community in Changping District, Beijing. "We are too biased here. At that time, the imported masks could not be discharged at all. Don't even think about it." The clerk said that it was probably in mid-March, and the masks could be easily accessed in his shop.
The KN95 and N95 masks that used to "smell only their names and hard to see them" have the worst sales recently. "It's too hot in summer, and I'm so sweaty wearing an ordinary mask. The epidemic has been controlled so well that no one wants to spend more money to suffer N95!" the clerk said.
Living in a luxury house or on the rooftop? "Life and Death" only in January
"The end of masks, a large number of factories clear inventory, 0.3 yuan for ordinary civilian use, a large amount can be negotiated." Mr. Chen, who is engaged in the trade industry, has been helping friends from all walks of life in the circle of friends to advertise masks, but the effect is not ideal.
"Mooncakes after the Mid-Autumn Festival are not as expensive as biscuits!" Mr. Chen sighed. In the current field of mask wholesales, the price of ordinary disposable masks is even lower at three cents.
At the end of January this year, Mr. Chen got several masks through the relationship, and then he didn't do it because it was too difficult. The number is not too much, but because it smelled the tuyere earlier, it also earned more than a hundred thousand.
"The most profitable ones are the earliest batches that have entered the market, as well as the masks that were originally made." Mr. Chen said that among the friends he knew, most of them made more than 3 million yuan by reselling masks.
Data Map: During the peak of the epidemic, people queue up to buy masks. Photo by Liu Wenhua
Although he did not earn as much as others, Mr. Chen did not regret this "timely withdrawal." Because "I haven't heard of a few earning millions, and I've lost a lot of money."
Some people in the industry have calculated such an account. At the price of May, one ton of qualified civilian 90-level melt-blown cloth is about 400,000 yuan, and one ton of melt-blown cloth produces 1 million disposable medical masks. The cost of cloth is already 4 cents. Coupled with non-woven fabric, hanging ears, beading, and labor costs, if the quality of the mask is qualified, a mask sells a few cents, and the merchant must lose money.
According to Mr. Chen, in addition to losing money and returning funds, there are also many “hybrids” among the people who sell at low prices: “Many of them entered the industry during the tight stage of the epidemic. To be honest, the quality of the masks is not high enough. Go to offline stores No one wants to see the real thing. Most of them are sold at low prices in online stores."
The reporter inquired about the masks sold on the online shopping platform. "100 masks cost only 19.9 yuan and 50 masks cost 9.9 yuan." "This kind of mask must be purchased carefully, many of them are boxed goods from small factories." Mr. Chen said.
The company's survey data also shows that from 2020 to June 8, the mask-related risk information has exceeded 1,000, less than half a year, and the amount of risk information is 1.7 times that of the whole year of 2019. In this year's mask-related risk information, administrative penalties accounted for 87.82% of the total, specifically manifested as sub-good, fake and inferior behavior.
Mask machine and melt-blown cloth, all "quick-frozen"
"At that time in February, there were really no masks all over the country. I even went to some villages where masks were produced, and all I could find were found." What if there is demand for masks? You can only buy masks.
"In March, a friend said that he could get 900,000 automatic mask machines and asked me if I wanted to join." Mr. Chen recalled that his friend's excited tone seemed to be waiting for money. However, he realized that the seller's market with extreme masks would not last long, so he rejected his friend's invitation.
The business was really not going well. The mask machine was only received in April, when masks were already on the market at that time, and raw materials and labor costs had to be compensated for starting the work. The new face mask machine was turned into scrap iron, and no one had collected it at a discount of 300,000 yuan.
"It's not good to say, the mask can't be sold at the end, and it can be given away. What should I do if the mask machine loses its hand, hundreds of thousands of iron guys?" Now, the mask machine that was sent to "the dream of riches" I was still idle in the warehouse. I didn't earn any money. I was still "eating" the warehouse rent every day.
Like the mask machine, the raw material meltblown cloth for mask production upstream, due to the adjustment of the supply and demand structure and the substantial increase in the production capacity of the "national team" Sinopec and PetroChina, prices have also plummeted.
According to the statistics of the plastic network, since the middle and late May, the price of melt-blown cloth has dropped significantly. The price of 99-level melt-blown cloth was close to 725,000 yuan/ton on May 1, and the price had dropped to 250,000 yuan/ton on June 3. The price of 90-level melt-blown cloth has dropped from about 400,000 yuan/ton in early May to 35,000 yuan/ton on June 3.
Behind the digital rise and fall, many mask merchants lively interpreted the business story of "first come to live in a luxury house, and then go to the roof".
On May 13, local time, Los Angeles Mayor Gahiti announced that people must wear masks whenever they go out. The picture shows people wearing masks in local shopping malls.
Hard fight or export? Mask industry ushered in a big reshuffle
According to the data from Tianyan, from January 1 to May 31, 2020, 70,802 mask-related enterprises in my country were newly registered, which was an increase of 1255.84% compared with the same period in 2019.
The turning point occurred in May. In April 2020, the monthly registration volume of mask-related enterprises reached 35,260, an increase of 97.24% compared with March; in May, the registration volume of mask-related enterprises decreased, with 10,283 newly added monthly, a decrease of 70.84%.
The domestic epidemic situation improved and the mask market was saturated; foreign epidemic situations continued to spread, and many mask manufacturers regarded exports as the last life-saving straw.
However, on April 10, the General Administration of Customs issued Announcement No. 53 to strengthen the supervision of quality standards for masks. Many civil mask manufacturers without medical device product certificates cannot pass the customs inspection for export. This makes the domestic mask industry appear to have a double-sided situation-conforming to the standards of "big factories" desperate to increase production capacity, "small factories" can only temporarily stop working and bid for export qualifications.
Industry insiders believe that mask factories that have hurriedly invested in construction after the epidemic occurred and whose production level cannot meet the standards are likely to face a large number of shutdowns. However, because the whitelist is round by round, those companies that meet their own production quality standards only because the qualification application queues take too long, resulting in short-term operational difficulties, still have hope to survive.
"For masks, the core competitiveness now is quality and price." Mr. Chen feels that whether it is a mask enterprise that wants to obtain a qualified export or wants to kill the bleeding road in domestic competition, it produces excellent products. Is the first.
Are the masks you bought cheap? What is the quality? (Finish)