"In a special period of the epidemic, masks have exceeded the profits of arms and drugs - 100% to 300% of the profits." Recently, the news documentary "Mask Hunter" became popular on the Internet, and Lin Dong, a businessman who "dug gold" in the overseas medical supplies market, described the huge profits of masks.
In China, it is not uncommon for "ambitious" young people like Lin Dong to be found. Chen Ke, a 26-year-old physical store operator, discovered "business opportunities" in the medical supplies market during the epidemic and rushed to Guangdong overnight to compete for a forehead temperature gun production line, he enjoyed the pleasure of tens of millions of cash deposits, and also tasted the taste of losing millions of dollars in an instant.
Doctor Lin Chengchun with the idea of "making a little money" to test the waters, eager to try to layout the overseas mask market, he posted through the Internet to build a group, within a few days there were three or four hundred people to contact him, "a lot of young people in their twenties came to contact me, asking to join the group." But in the face of chaotic market order, Lin Chengchun "became more and more tired, and the more he did, the more afraid he became."
They are called "upside-down masters", which is almost a job that does not require a threshold, as long as they can find the factory and the orderer, and link the two, they can earn profits by earning the middle price difference. Since the beginning of the epidemic, the market around medical supplies has attracted more and more people to enter the market with the illusion of "easy profits".
However, with the stabilization of the epidemic, medical supplies such as masks and forehead temperature guns have also returned to the balance of supply and demand. On April 29, the State Administration of Market Regulation and seven other departments said that they would jointly carry out special rectification actions for the quality of products and market order of epidemic prevention materials nationwide. Focus on strengthening supervision of masks, protective clothing, ventilators, infrared thermometers (forehead temperature guns), new coronavirus detection reagents and other epidemic prevention materials and important raw and auxiliary materials.
Prices fall, the tide recedes, some people make millions of dollars and withdraw, some people are still waiting.
On April 17, 2020, a company in Tianjin had a forehead temperature gun production line, and workers were stepping up production.
"Upside down" drove for 15 hours to grab the supply
"Guangdong's largest mask factory, 10,000 minimum orders, seconds!"
"Forehead temperature gun attack, first-hand channels, market retail price of 750 yuan -850 yuan, 2w shipments per day!"
Since these "in stock" messages were released in the circle of friends, a phone on Chen Ke's mobile phone has not hung up, and a new phone has called in.
The strange phone calls that keep coming in and the WeChat messages that pour in are all asking him about the "goods" - "asking for the price", "asking for information", "determining whether the product quality is passed"... His phone quickly ran out of battery and had to recharge it every three hours or so.
Before the epidemic, Chen Ke was in the business of various physical stores. He is 26 years old and has run a jewelry store and a bar, and is also a shareholder of a coffee shop. But his career "territory" is not limited to this, and the circle of friends is full of all kinds of retail advertisements.
Affected by the epidemic, in the past few months, the physical stores operated by Chen Ke have been closed for business. However, at the end of January, when the demand for medical supplies soared, he found "business opportunities", relying on human resources, entrusted by many enterprises and institutions in Yunnan to purchase masks and forehead temperature guns for these units to resume work.
Forehead temperature guns have never been more sought-after. Relying on infrared one-button temperature measurement, the forehead temperature gun can screen a large range and rapid screening of fever populations, and has become an important tool for screening suspected patients in the epidemic. In addition, with the return of the return of the people returning to work, the demand for forehead temperature guns is also increasing. According to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on February 3, in the early days of February alone, the demand for forehead temperature guns in stations, communities, companies and other places exceeded 300,000 units.
At the end of January, Chen Ke got "first-hand news" from a friend that the forehead temperature gun production line of an electronics factory in Dongguan had not yet been signed.
On March 25, 2020, Dongguan, Guangdong Province, Humen Town, enterprise mask production workshop.
At that time, Chen Ke saw in the circle of friends that the retail price of the forehead temperature gun had been speculated to 400 yuan-500 yuan, and the monthly production capacity of the forehead temperature gun production line of this factory was 300,000-500,000 units, and the successful signing meant considerable profit margins.
The night he got the news, Chen Ke decided to go to Guangdong. He and Fa Xiao took the purchase letter and the power of attorney, and on the fifth day of the Chinese New Year, they set off from Zhaotong, Yunnan Province, drove for 15 hours, and crossed 1500 kilometers to Dongguan.
Despite consciously "sensitive sense of smell" and early intervention, Chen Ke still miscalculated. Live video he provided reporters showed his car arriving at the factory in long lines along the streets by the time his car arrived.
In the video, the iron door of the factory is closed and the security guard in front of the door is stationed. Several small tables on the sidewalk across the street were temporarily used by the factory as negotiating tables for dealing with various visitors.
The iron door of a factory in Dongguan is closed, and there are personnel guarding the door. Courtesy of respondents
"Whoever pays first will give it to whom", "If you don't sign it today, someone will sign it tomorrow", the factory told Chen Ke.
In the face of this "sought-after" production line, the manufacturer required a one-time advance payment of 30%, close to 30 million, but at this time, Chen Ke and Fa Xiao could only afford to pay a million advance payments. That night, the line was signed by someone else.
In fact, not only forehead temperature guns, under the new crown pneumonia epidemic, masks, ventilators, meltblown cloth and other epidemic prevention materials have become "hard currency". The outbreak of the epidemic has led to a surge in the price of medical supplies due to an imbalance between supply and demand. All kinds of "upside-down masters", "retail investors" and "gold owners" saw the business opportunities and joined in, and the middlemen peddled layer by layer, making the originally inconspicuous medical supplies become high-priced and tight goods.
"Any link can be poured," said a medical supplies intermediary, "from the polyethylene that produces meltblown cloth to the machine that produces meltblown cloth, even overseas purchase orders and manufacturers demand meltblown cloth." ”
Forehead temperature gun purchased by Chen Ke. Courtesy of respondents
Some people prefer to be called "intermediaries" than "upside down masters".
After the failure of this competition to contract the production line, Chen Ke originally planned to turn back, but was invited by several friends to continue to stay in Guangdong, and they formed a team of 7 people, members from all walks of life - some do seafood wholesale, do plastic surgery, run a business.
They rented a duplex homestay in Shenzhen, with several rooms in the homestay, which were used for members to rest at night, and vacated as office points for bargaining and trading during the day. Compared with Lin Dong, who packed the Shangri-La Hotel in the news, Chen Ke called himself a "grounded grandfather".
He introduced that according to the internal division of labor of the team, some people specially docked with the factory to place orders, some assistants were responsible for legal contracts, and some people were specifically responsible for risk control assessment.
The purchase of medical supplies such as masks and forehead temperature guns requires a Class II medical device business license. Chen Ke personally does not have such qualifications. However, there are members of the team who run a medical device company, and everyone advances funds together and signs a contract with the manufacturer in the name of the company to contract the production line of the forehead temperature gun.
When they released the news that there was "spot" and "subcontracted production line", the tenants continued to have customers. By mid-March, Chen Ke and his companions had signed up production lines for five or six factories in Dongguan, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other places, each with a daily output of 10,000-30,000 forehead temperature guns. These lines allow them to complete individual purchase orders while also subcontracting and selling surplus materials.
Chen Ke is responsible for negotiating contracts and signing contracts with manufacturers. This allowed him to sleep for an average of only 3 hours a day during the more than 50 days of "gold panning" in Guangdong, and the daily arrangement was "either on the road or on the road".
Every time a contract is signed with a manufacturer, it faces strong competition with other customers. Chen Ke said that in Guangdong's large and small electronics factories, "it is all people who are lined up to see the factory owner." When he and the factory owner have signed a contract, there are still people who do not give up, "want to sign our production line contract period after the time, for example, we only sign this month, he wants to be in line behind to sign the next month." ”
Like many people in it, Chen Ke feels that the medical supplies market at this time is more often like a game around "manufacturers", "gold lords".
The essence of the "upside down" is that the dealers, who make a profit by earning the middle price difference, are responsible for "finding the factory and the orderer, contacting the two, and collecting the introduction fee.". In the end, it is the "gold lord" who really pays the money.
For most of the "upside-down masters", this is almost a job that does not require a threshold, Lin Chengchun has earned two introduction fees, he is a doctor, and he has been concerned about the export of medical supplies since the epidemic. Since February, the overseas epidemic has become more and more serious, which has allowed him to see the business opportunity of masks going to sea, and he intends to "make a little money". After intensively understanding foreign trade and material information on various websites and WeChat groups, Lin Chengchun began to make a simple layout - posting on the Internet, looking for factories and orderers, and setting up a special WeChat group.
After familiarizing himself with the market, Chen Ke found that after obtaining 50% of the prepayment payment from the client, he could sign the production line without his own advance funds, and get huge profits after delivery. But he does not do all this, for those "low-priced" production lines, they will also advance funds to sign, and then subcontract to get profits.
Unlike Chen Ke, Lin Chengchun did not advance funds. "Most of the upside-down masters are just docking information, they do not press the goods, the pressure is a very small number", Lin Chengchun said, his mode of operation emphasizes "light assets, light risk" - he set up a 160-person WeChat group, which is his careful review of the manufacturers or have reliable manufacturer resources of the "upside down".
In the chain of buying and selling materials, the role of Lin Chengchun is also called "package inquiry" by industry insiders, who are familiar with the market price, factory price and the price of the orderer who comes to the door in each period, "purchase to a price, manufacturers to give a price, if there is a difference in price, then go to the docking." ”
Compared with the "upside down", Lin Chengchun is more willing to call himself an "intermediary" - he explained that he does not maliciously speculate in goods, but only docks resources and collects a "tea fee" that is acceptable to both parties.
Several small tables opposite a factory in Dongguan were used temporarily to negotiate deals. Courtesy of respondents
"The more I do it, the more tired I get, the more I do it, the more I am afraid"
But Lin Chengchun's "tea fee" is not easy to earn.
At the end of March, he reached a preliminary contract of intent with one of the orderers, and at the other end, when he was ready to finalize cooperation with the mask factory that was still under negotiation, due to the rise in raw materials, the price of masks in the factory changed several times in one day, "13 masks for 5 in the morning, 15 for 5 in the afternoon, and 17 for 5 in the afternoon" due to the rise in raw materials. The price of the two sides determines Lin Chengchun's profit space, twice a day, more than 4 yuan of fluctuation space, for Lin Chengchun "can not operate at all."
Lin Chengchun's goal is the overseas mask market, whether it is a forehead temperature gun or a mask, to export to the United States, it needs to have the FDA certification approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, and the CE certification is required for export to the European Union. Otherwise, the product cannot enter the customs smoothly.
However, the certification cycle is 2 weeks to 3 weeks, the cycle is long and the certification price is high, and on some e-commerce platforms, it is easy to buy the so-called "CE, FDA certification expedited processing" fake certification.
On April 5, the State Administration of Municipal Supervision mentioned in response to the CE certification fraud that in response to some irregular certification behaviors of exports, the State Administration for Market Supervision has specially deployed and plans to carry out special rectification actions, focusing on the forgery of fraudulent use of certification certificates, unauthorized engaging in certification activities, irregular certification activities and illegal certification prices.
Wu Bin, a foreign trade businessman who first entered the medical device industry during the epidemic, was stuck at the threshold of certification. When he received a large number of overseas mask entrusted purchase orders, he contacted several factories through intermediaries and clearly required masks to "use meltblown cloth with 99% filter efficiency and pass the EU CE certification".
Wu Bin and the three mask factories reached a preliminary cooperation intention, such as the production sample testing through the CE certification, the two sides will officially finalize the cooperation. However, after the samples of the three factories were sent to Hamburg for testing, it was found that only 75% of them had the highest filtration efficiency, and none of the three factories passed CE certification. Wu Bin's cooperation not only failed, but also had to bear the 230,000 yuan of sample inspection and transportation costs spent on this cooperation.
The WeChat group created by Lin Chengchun specifically for docking purchasers and manufacturers is also filled with a large number of "fake certifications, fake qualifications, and fake power of attorney", and he is worried that if the mask orders he docks cannot be cleared due to quality problems, it is difficult for him to avoid risks.
Lin Chengchun was angry and hateful, "Every time you make a single order, you have to review the entire information chain from beginning to end, and you have to spend countless time and energy to analyze whether the purchaser is really reliable?" Is this factory qualified? How many hands does the intermediary have? ”
Chen Ke changed from a physical operator to a purchaser of medical supplies, with continuous orders, the number of orders is tens of thousands, it seems that the profits are fat, but when he is in it, he finds that this fresh business is far more tricky than the physical store operation.
At the most difficult time, the production line during the delivery cycle cannot complete the agreed output, and Chen Ke will exhaust all means to find various ways to sweep the spot. Sometimes, the "dumping" is the internal employees of the forehead temperature gun factory, the transaction will become extremely hidden, the transaction time is often at one or two o'clock in the morning, the other party sends a location on his mobile phone, Chen Ke will drive hundreds of kilometers to wait for the goods, inspection, forehead temperature gun a box of 50, Chen Ke and friends to move hundreds of boxes.
The most important thing about the forehead temperature gun is the infrared probe, "the medical infrared probe error is small, the error range is about 0.3 degrees; the industrial probe error is large, sometimes up and down 3 degrees." In the case of shortage of raw materials, Chen Ke also encountered many manufacturers who used industrial forehead temperature gun probes as medical probes.
Since February, information on the use of material fraud has been endless. Lin Chengchun "is getting more and more tired, and the more he is afraid of doing it", before that, he tried to regulate the release and quality of group information by strictly controlling the threshold for entering the group. The WeChat group of 160 people was later reduced to 40 people, and only those who agreed to hold ID cards and video lin Chengchun one by one to confirm their identity could be left behind. He even plans to simplify it to a WeChat group of 5-8 people in the future, and maintain long-term cooperation within the group.
But less than 20 days later, the 40-man group was also disbanded by him. During this period, he really promoted only 2 orders through the WeChat group.
The probe is an important component of the forehead temperature gun. Courtesy of respondents
Some have withdrawn, some are still on the sidelines
Half a month after arriving in Shenzhen, Chen Ke ushered in the largest order in trading volume. A Jiangsu customer flew to Shenzhen to buy 100,000 forehead temperature guns from Chen Ke and asked him to complete the delivery within a week. These 100,000 forehead temperature guns, the factory price is 380 yuan per hand, the total amount is 38 million, and the transaction is in the form of 50% advance payment, which is received in two times.
"It's more exciting than playing stocks and playing with capital plates," Chen Ke said, adding that even during the operation of the physical store, tens of millions of payments were never credited to his account. After the "upside down" medical supplies, Chen Ke's forehead temperature gun order source is mainly government and enterprise orders, the order volume is generally 30,000-50,000, at the market price of 300-400 yuan at that time, "the old is more money, the account is entered, and the casual transaction is tens of millions."
The 100,000-piece forehead temperature gun transaction with a shipment volume, measured by the profit space of 5 yuan-10 yuan per piece, can bring Nearly one million yuan of profit to Chen Ke.
He even planned, "Wouldn't it be possible to buy a Ferrari for a month?" After all, in this "gold rush" game, there is no shortage of "legends" who have become rich overnight.
Lin Chengchun also remembers that after he posted a group through the Internet, three or four hundred people came to contact him within a few days and "asked to join the group."
"Some people are addicted to vanity, some people are addicted to pleasure", for Chen Ke, he initially came with the idea of making money, "making money", "enveloping the relationship", and enjoying the "stimulation" brought by the large amount of money in the process.
On April 29, seven departments, including the State Administration for Market Regulation, together with the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Food and Drug Administration, held a teleconference, saying that they would jointly carry out special rectification actions for the quality of products and market order of epidemic prevention materials nationwide. Highlight all kinds of rectification, focusing on strengthening supervision of masks, protective clothing, ventilators, infrared thermometers (forehead temperature guns), new coronavirus detection reagents and other epidemic prevention materials and important raw and auxiliary materials.
Chen Ke also tasted the taste of losing millions of dollars in an instant.
At the beginning of the procurement, a batch of orders with a total of 20,000 forehead temperature guns, the contract stipulated that the purchase price was 270 yuan to 280 yuan, the supply was tight, in order to complete the delivery Chen Ke spent 350 yuan on the unit price of 350 yuan to make up the quantity, "each upside down 80 yuan, lost 1.6 million", "like stealing chicken is not a reverse erosion of rice", he described the feeling at that time.
Chen Ke later concluded that the excitement of the material business is also that "it can make you earn millions of dollars, and it can also make you lose millions of dollars."
At the end of March, with the stabilization of the domestic epidemic situation, the medical supplies market gradually balanced supply and demand, and the unit price of the forehead temperature gun fell from 700 yuan at the highest time to about 200 yuan. The profit margin was compressed, and Chen Ke felt that it was "not interesting" to stay any longer, so he drove back to Zhaotong, Yunnan Province, alone, but the original team still had people in Guangdong who insisted.
After returning home, the bar resumed business, and Chen Ke devoted most of his time to it. The millions of profits brought by "millions of masks, hundreds of thousands of temperature guns" have changed hands and he has invested in his new business - developing software.
He still fell asleep in the early hours of the morning, but because he had been disturbed by "endless calls" in Guangdong for too long, in the past month, whenever the bar closed at four or five o'clock in the morning and returned home, before going to bed, Chen Ke would deliberately mute his mobile phone.
At the end of March, he donated 5,000 yuan of masks to an Italian from his own pocket, hoping that the other party could help him dock overseas orders, but the other party accepted his mask and politely rejected the proposal.
He laughed at himself as a "failure", but he didn't want to give up. He is still waiting and seeing, looking forward to a more severe rectification of the market order, and at that time, if there is still room for maneuvering, he plans to "promote the construction of websites to Google and FaCEbook, dock first-hand overseas orders, and contact manufacturers directly."
(Chen Ke, Lin Chengchun, wu bin as pseudonyms in the text)
Beijing News reporter Wei Furong Editor Chen Xiaoshu Proofreader Wang Xin