Surgical Face Mask Making Machinery

The COVID-19 has spread rapidly around the world, causing serious imbalances between the supply and the demand of masks at domestic and international. Under the huge market demand prospects, many mask manufacturers have to expand their production, and Foxconn, Nissan, and other companies start to produce face marks and other protection products, such as Liquid soap, 84 disinfectant, and ethanol.

The price of mask production machines ranges from 250,000 to 1.3 million, a 520-time increase! The core raw material for the production of the masks, melt-blown cloth, has a price ranging from 20,000 to 350,000, an increase of 1750 times. Although it is expensive, the manufacturer of masks still cannot find the source.

Surgical Face Mask

The demand of facemask production machine

Along with GAC Group, SAIC-GM-Wuling, BYD, and Foxconn all reported the production of masks, the "mask machine on sale" became a hot word at the moment.

There are many people who want to buy mask production machines online or in the store, but the response is often "no in stock". The face mask production equipment usually needs 30-40 days for delivery or even go for 6 months.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19, although the COVID-19 situation was under control at the end of February, and enterprises resumed work one after another, under the influence of huge demand, medical protection products are still in short supply.

According to statistics, since January to February 2020, more than 3,000 companies across the country have added "masks, protective clothing, disinfectants, thermometers, medical devices" and other businesses. Among them, the number of newly added "medical devices" in the business scope is as high as 3647.

Medical Face Mask Production Line

Everything become expensive?

The National Development and Reform Commission of China announced that until February 25, the daily production capacity of domestic surgical masks reached 32,12 million pieces and the daily output reached 30.28 million pieces; including ordinary masks, medical masks, and medical N95 masks, the daily production capacity of national masks reached 72.85 million pieces and the daily output reached 7619 The number of masks was 3.4 times and 7.8 times respectively on February 1. The utilization rate of mask capacity reached 105%, which has initially eased the contradiction between supply and demand of masks.

However, after the outbreak in China, a widespread outbreak occurred following China, and the number of affected countries and numbers continued to rise.

South Korea, the United States, Iran, Japan, and other countries have seen a surge in the purchase of masks and protective equipment, and the price has soared to 10 times or even 20 times. However, it is still "difficult to find." Coupled with the lack of local productivity and inventory, supply and demand are even more tight. As China is a big country in producing masks globally, the production capacity of masks accounts for more than 50% of the global production capacity, which is particularly important in this COVID-19.

Supply Chain

The complete mask industry chain includes upstream raw materials (mainly PP, polyester and etc.); midstream PP non-woven fabrics, melt-blown cloth, nose bridge strips, ear band materials and mask film machines and mask spot welding machines, Mask packaging machines, and other production equipment; downstream mask manufacturers and market circulation links.

Medical masks are generally composed of non-woven fabrics, melt-blown cloths, and ear-wearing materials. The main structure is three-layer (SMS) non-woven fabrics. The main raw material of S-layer non-woven fabric is polypropylene fiber material modified by PP and peroxide. The main material of M-layer is melt-blown fabric, and the ear-wearing material is polypropylene plastic/polypropylene fiber and Spandex.

N95 Face Mask Sample

Melt-blown cloth refers to the non-woven fabric produced by melt melting of its own fibers and produced by the melt-blown method. After the material undergoes electret treatment, the fibers are charged and electrostatically capture the aerosol where the new crown virus is located. Without changing the breathing resistance, the filterability of the melt-blown cloth can reach 95%.

In terms of composition, the raw material of the melt-blown cloth is made of high-melt-fiber polypropylene. In addition, traditional materials include PET, PA, PE, and PU.

Regarding the supply of raw materials, under normal circumstances, the production capacity of high-melt-fiber polypropylene is generally sufficient. Last year, the domestic production of high-melt-finger fiber polypropylene was 950,000 tons. Generally speaking, 1 ton of high-melt-fiber fiber polypropylene can produce 200,000 medical masks. If the full production capacity is used for the production of medical masks, the annual production of high-melt-finger fiber polypropylene can produce 190 billion medical masks, which is enough to consume 3800 days at the current 50 million mask production capacity.

In fact, under normal circumstances, the annual production capacity of domestic masks is more than 5 billion, and the production capacity has accounted for half of the world. Under normal circumstances, the supply of mask raw materials will not be a big problem.

However, not all high-melt-fiber polypropylene is used in the production of medical masks. Coupled with the recent surge in mask demand and the obstruction of logistics, the supply and demand in the industrial chain have changed significantly.

Upstream high melting refers to a significant increase in demand for fiber polypropylene. Based on two months (20 million in the first month and 50 million in the following month), a total of 70 million masks were added. A total of 350 tons of high-melt-fiber polypropylene was required, accounting for 0.037% of last year's output. Overall, The growth is not large. However, due to the mismatch of demand and the impact of logistics and transportation, the price of raw materials will rise to a certain extent. Prior to this, the price of polypropylene was at a historically low level, and the increase in prices may bring certain benefits to the relevant manufacturers.

N95 Standard Melt-blown Non Wovens

The same applies to production equipment. According to media reports, the current price of a set of mask production equipment has increased from 250,000 to 1.3 million, an increase of more than 500%; while the price of melt-blown cloth has increased from 20,000 to 350,000, an increase of 1750%.

At present, the A-share listed companies that produce masks for polypropylene in the upstream of the domestic industry chain mainly include Sinopec, Donghua Energy, Hengli Petrochemical, Daun and so on. Among them, Sinopec has guaranteed that it will not increase prices. Non-woven fabric companies in the middle reach include Xinlong Holdings, Jiangnan High Fiber, Yanjiang Stock, Zaisheng Technology, TEDA, Nuobang, etc .; Meltblown non-woven fabric manufacturing companies have recycled technology and new nylon technology.

And midstream equipment suppliers include Zhiyun, Topstar, Tanaka, Zhengye Technology, Hanchuan Intelligent, Prosco and etc.

Tunnel Type UV Light Sterillzer

There are quite a few mask manufacturers in the downstream of the industry chain, including the original Zhende Medical, Allmed Medical, Guangzhou Improve Medical, YanAn Bicon, and listed companies that produce masks across borders, such as GAC Group, BYD, DaddyBady, Foxconn, etc.

The profit of mask production is very thin. Usually, the general price of medical ordinary masks is about 9 cents each, while the price of medical surgical masks is between 4 cents and 4 cents. Enterprise foundry production profits are even smaller.

Therefore, even if a large number of companies produce masks one after another, even if the price of masks has risen significantly, the upsurge of domestic-made masks for the whole people will not generate much profit. In fact, in the case of the state's strict masking and malicious price increase, the profit margins of various links in the industrial chain are not bound to be too great.

From the perspective of the entire industrial chain, the surge in downstream demand has not stimulated the growth of demand for raw materials, and the downstream foundry production profits are relatively small. Therefore, the biggest benefits may be equipment suppliers in the middle reaches (current supply is tight) and nonwovens and melt-blown Textile companies.