If it were not for the company's switch to masks, Zhang Ai would not have known that the 10,000 medical masks bought for 20,000 yuan were "fake".
The next experience, Zhang Ai did not expect: meltblown cloth rose from 360,000 yuan per ton to 400,000 yuan, and the mask machine also rose from 550,000 yuan per unit to 1.5 million today's 1.5 million-2 million yuan.
Under the new crown pneumonia epidemic, it is difficult to find a mask .
Meltblown cloth, a raw material known as the "heart" of masks, and mask machines, are also involved in this "scramble".
Twenty thousand dollars Ten thousand fake masks
In order to prepare masks for employees to return to work, on January 27, a friend of Zhang Aato's pharmacy at a textile factory in Zhejiang Province helped buy masks.
Twenty thousand yuan, ten thousand disposable medical masks.
"It was hard to buy a mask at that time." Since the evening of January 20, Zhong Nanshan said in an interview that "the new coronavirus pneumonia can definitely be passed on by people", the degree of masks "difficult to buy" has increased day by day.
After receiving the mask, the friend who helped to purchase reminded Zhang Ai, "Be sure to open it to see how the quality of the mask is."
Zhang Ai took the mask to the company and checked it with his colleagues. Received the water, did not leak, and looked quite thick, "I think this is a pharmacy to buy must be good." ”
It was not until Zhang Ai's textile factory switched to producing masks that the three words "meltblown cloth" appeared in her dictionary.
Meltblown cloth, the core material of the mask, with polypropylene as the main raw material, has good filterability, shielding, heat insulation and oil absorption.
It is understood that the general medical mask has three layers, the front and back are medical ordinary non-woven fabrics, the middle layer is meltblown non-woven fabric, which is also the most critical layer, which can play a role in isolating bacteria and droplets.
Zhang Ai checked the mask he bought again, cut it open, and found that although it was also three layers, there was no meltblown cloth layer, "all of which are ordinary non-woven fabrics." After the masks were sent for inspection, the technicians also said so.
"There is no meltblown cloth at all, this mask is harmful", Zhang Aifa circle of friends reminded everyone not to be deceived again.
The volume of mask quality testing business has increased sharply, and the efficiency of bacterial filtration is a key indicator
Under the epidemic, masks have not only fallen into the situation of "difficult to buy", but also frequently exposed cases of fake and shoddy masks.
In order to crack down on the illegal production and sale of masks and other protective products, on February 13, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the Ministry of Public Security, the Food and Drug Administration and other eight departments jointly issued a document to strictly investigate and punish illegal production and sales and illegal recycling and sales of protective products such as masks around online and offline, for all kinds of enterprises and production and business entities.
At the press conference of the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council on March 12, the State Administration for Market Regulation introduced that a total of 7 million law enforcement personnel were dispatched nationwide, 8.975 million households were inspected, and 80.66 million problem masks were seized.
To determine the authenticity of masks, professional testing institutions are indispensable. During the epidemic, the inspectors in charge of mask testing of Pony Testing Group worked overtime to rush to work, and the technical manager of its mask testing laboratory told reporters that the company's mask testing business volume was three to five times more than before. The sources of masks sent for inspection include sampling by relevant enterprises, e-commerce platforms and market supervision bureaus.
According to reports, the general mask involves three dimensions of chemistry, physics and medical biology, a total of more than 20 tests, medical masks also include skin sensitization, skin irritation and other toxicological experimental requirements. These tests are related to the safety and comfort of mask wearing.
Mask testing laboratory. Courtesy of respondents
For the two key indicators of particle filtration efficiency and bacterial filtration efficiency, the technical manager said that the best masks detected can reach more than 99%, "the worst is not easy to say, some masks do not have a filtration effect at all." "In the recent inspection of over-doubled masks, the proportion of unqualified products is significantly higher than in the past.
Zhang Ai told reporters that she later bought several masks, including medical surgical masks and disposable medical masks, "After sending for examination, she found that almost all of them were unqualified, and some filtration efficiency was only about 20%. ”
"A lot of substandard masks are made on meltblown cloth." This is something that Zhang Ai only learned after he switched to producing masks.
Meltblown cloth and mask machines are in chaos, and the price increase on the ground is arbitrarily broken
Masks are in short supply, and the demand for meltblown cloth and mask machines, the core raw materials, has also blown up.
People's Daily reporter statistics found that on the "material supply and demand docking platform" launched by the Central Enterprise E-commerce Alliance, on the evening of March 11, in the first 100 "demand-side" information, 36 meltblown cloths were mentioned, 21 mask machines were mentioned, and the rest of the demand also included non-woven fabrics, ear straps, nose bridges and other raw materials.
On March 11, on the "Material Supply and Demand Docking Platform", 36 meltblown cloths were mentioned, and 21 mask machines were mentioned.
Demand affects prices. The reporter contacted the mask manufacturers in Henan, Zhejiang, Guangdong and other places to learn that the original price of meltblown cloth of 10,000 to 40,000 per ton has now increased by about 10 times, and some middlemen even offer a price of 430,000 yuan a ton.
What makes "Zhang Ai" even more headache is "market chaos".
After the factory decided to switch to the production of medical masks, in addition to renovating the factory, the purchase of meltblown cloth and mask machines became a top priority.
When he first purchased meltblown cloth, Zhang Ai negotiated with the other party to buy 10 tons, 360,000 yuan per ton. When picking up the goods at the other party's factory, a large number of mask manufacturers were waiting for the goods, "the other party raised the price on the spot, 400,000." "And the 10 tons of goods that are said to be good, only 1 ton is in hand."
There are even cases of being robbed at the door of the seller's factory. No matter how late, Zhang Ai will send someone to the seller's factory to pick up the goods back, "I am afraid that there will be problems when the delivery is delivered." ”
Chen Jianyi, a mask manufacturer in Henan, stopped production half a month ago because he could not buy meltblown cloth.
Half a month ago, he ordered 3 tons of meltblown cloth from Zhengzhou City at a price of 40,000 yuan per ton, and the other party demanded full payment and did not sign a contract.
After paying the money, when it was time to deliver, Chen Jianyi did not receive the meltblown cloth.
"It's risen to more than 300,000 tons. I didn't sign the contract, we couldn't do it, he wanted to return the 120,000 yuan to me. ”
In addition to meltblown cloth, mask producers are also exhausted by mask machines.
"It's like gambling. ”
When buying the first two machines, Zhang Ai agreed with the manufacturer on the delivery time, and the day before, the other party said that it was snatched by others. The price of the mask machine has also risen from 550,000 yuan to 1.5-2 million today, "He would rather compensate tens of thousands of yuan in liquidated damages, and then sell the machine to those (with higher bids)." ”
In the follow-up process of searching for a mask machine, Zhang Ai and his colleagues experienced various "scammers". Some asked to hit the deposit first, said that the machine was sold, and then returned the deposit; some said that there was a spot in hand, and when they proposed to go to the factory to see, the other party had no news; and some mask machines were not qualified at all, and they bought it back for three or four days.
Being deceived more, Zhang Ai no longer believed those verbal promises and demanded that he must "hand over the money and deliver the goods with one hand."
Zhang Ai was fortunate to find a more honest meltblown cloth and mask machine manufacturer, and increased the production capacity of masks.
Chen Jianyi, who has been out of production for more than half a month, plans to resume production as soon as possible and make ordinary dust masks, because there is no need to use meltblown cloth.
Stable price "national team" shot
The abnormal fluctuations in the market price of meltblown cloth and mask machines have attracted the attention of relevant departments.
On the official website of the State Administration for Market Regulation, the reporter saw that the bureau sent an inspection team on March 5 to join hands with the public security department to carry out a special inspection of the illegal acts that disrupted the price order of the meltblown cloth market, and on the 10th, the ninth batch of typical cases of gouging the price of meltblown cloth that have been investigated and handled were announced.
On March 4, the Dongguan Municipal Bureau of Market Supervision and Administration issued the Notice on Strictly Prohibiting the Speculation of the Market Price of Mask Machines. The circular proposes that the market price supervision of mask machines will be strengthened, and the price speculation of mask machines will be severely cracked down to ensure the stability of market prices.
In order to alleviate the production capacity of masks and meltblown cloth, the "national team" intervened to build a meltblown cloth production line while developing and producing masks.
Sinopec has invested in the construction of a total of 16 meltblown cloth production lines in Yanshan Petrochemical and Yizheng Chemical Fiber, and the production lines are expected to be fully put into operation by the end of May, which will form a production capacity of 30 tons / day. On March 9, the first batch of meltblown cloth of Yanshan Petrochemical left the factory.
PetroChina arranged for Lanzhou Petrochemical and Liaoyang Petrochemical to build two meltblown cloth production lines each. The civil construction of the Liaoyang Petrochemical Meltblown Nonwovens Production Project has been fully launched, and it strives to complete and form a production capacity of 1,000 tons/year in April.
In addition, 14 of the 21 mask production lines planned by PetroChina have also been put in place. It is expected that in mid-to-late March, 1.5 million masks will be produced per day.
ChemChina developed and produced new material protective masks, and after testing, the filtration efficiency of key indicators reached 99.2%.
"At present, our raw material prices are comparable to meltblown cloth, considering reusability, if all are put on the market, it will play a positive role in stabilizing the market price of raw materials for masks." Haohua Technology, general manager of ChemChina, said in an interview.
(Zhang Ai and Chen Jianyi are pseudonyms in the text)