This article comes from WeChat public account: Extraordinary Fritters (ID: ffyoutiao) , author: Oil Stick
We published an article two days ago 《Chinese Manufacturing Behind Masks》 , Which mentioned that the core material used in masks is a polypropylene product called meltblown cloth. It is also a kind of non-woven fabric in a broad sense, but because of the relatively high molding requirements and few application scenarios, its domestic production capacity is quite limited.
In addition, the layout of the meltblown cloth production capacity and the mask production capacity is geographically separated. It is not easy to increase the production capacity of protective masks at the current critical moment of the epidemic.
Now that the situation has made new progress, Europe, Japan, South Korea, the Middle East and other places have experienced large-scale outbreaks. After all, there are only a few lunatics who believe that the virus will not be transmitted outside the country like believers in South Korea. After all, the majority of the world’s people will sacrifice their lives. The worldwide demand for masks will inevitably increase sharply in the future.
Masks will be a good business for quite some time to come.
Naturally, meltblown cloth as the core raw material will also become a good business. Based on the simplest economic principle of price, you should be able to guess that the purchase price of meltblown cloth must rise.
The fact is true, but the price increase is even far beyond the limit imaginable by magic realism. According to a survey by surging journalists, the current price of meltblown cloth between middlemen and mask manufacturers has skyrocketed from 20,000 yuan / ton on weekdays to 100,000-290,000 yuan / ton, and the price increase has reached more than 10 times. No invoice yet.
After seeing the report, I went back to my friend who was a chemical engineer and asked about the situation. (I’m sorry you all know the reason) < / span>, he said that the surging price is still delayed, and the highest price circulating in the circle has reached 750,000 yuan / ton.
It’s 32 times, which is great news.
The price of meltblown cloth soared overnight. Naturally, it was mainly because the demand at the mask manufacturing end was too strong, and the petrochemical industry was a little overwhelmed. The root cause of the overwhelmingness is that the expansion of meltblown cloth is much more difficult than masks.
Making masks, even medical grade, is hardly difficult for Chinese manufacturing. There is a mask machine of 200,000, and there are a large number of domestic sources. Three barrels of oil can be bought, and the car factory can buy it. Even family workshops for jeans can be bought. Workers can get a job with simple training. The production capacity of masks quickly increased to 110%, which is not only a manifestation of the will of the country, but also conforms to the production law.
But meltblown cloth is not the case.
Readers said last time, haven’t we mastered meltblown cloth production technology? Why should we say this is a short board? No wonder we didn’t explain clearly. The fact is that although China has melt-blown cloth production capacity, we still don’t know the chemical equipment for manufacturing melt-blown cloth. At present, the international meltblown cloth equipment is mainly in the hands of German companies, and domestic equipment is just a trifle.
This import problem cannot be solved with a national order. The neck of the mask of the meltblown cloth card will really be untiable for a while.
The country must know this difficulty. Some people from the production company reported that the meltblown cloth had insufficient capacity. It was suggested to use a nanofiber membrane with similar performance instead. The structure is probably as shown below.
This material is also called electrospinning. It appeared in the United States in the 1990s. It has filtering properties in both gas and liquid phases, and many domestic research institutions and colleges and universities have studied this material. The latest application is said to be in battery separators for electric vehicles. I checked the domestic patent system again and found that the mass production equipment for electrostatic spinning has been invented in China, but the specific application capacity is still a mess.
With regard to science and technology, it is also a traditional art ability to be confused.
Therefore, the batch listing date of electrostatic spinning masks is likely to be a mess, the production capacity of protective masks, and so on. The pressure on the price of meltblown cloths and the manufacturing companies have to put up Way things.
What is more worrying is that the price restrictions on masks are being severely restricted in the manufacturing back end.
At present, various regions have introduced mask price management policies in response to the epidemic situation. Generally, the purchase and sales price difference is between 15 and 35%, and only Shanghai allows double sales. This is a pricing range with little profit margin. In addition, the purchase price is not updated in real time. In actual implementation, many grassroots departments will determine the purchase price according to the normal period pricing.
Mask retail is forced to lose money.
In this way, regular retail stores are definitely not actively buying, and high-priced products can only flow into the black market. The tougher the crackdown, the higher the risk premium on the black market, and the less expensive the compliance masks you can buy in the end.
As the epidemic situation abroad is getting worse, the outflow of masks will also accelerate. The most unsatisfactory situation is that some countries have no limit on the mask market. All black market masks have flowed into the country. Instead, they have stabilized the supply of masks, while ordinary people in China cannot buy compliant masks. At that time, shooting a few iron heads will not solve the problem, and the middlemen can engage in non-violence and non-cooperation.
It ’s true to earn money by using a mask.It’s too stupid.
This article comes from WeChat public account: extraordinary fritters (ID: ffyoutiao) author: Oil Stick