'Printing money': booming mask producers in China meet global demand

As coronavirus pandemic that originated in a central Chinese city has gone global, thousands of factories in China have nimbly turned to a new and very profitable market face masks for export.

At height of China's outbreak in early February, Guan Xunze's company created a new mask factory in just eleven days. factory, with five production lines in rastern China, me much-needed N95 face masks which were in huge demand as infection numbers surged.

As cases in country have dwindled, 34-year-old who was previously in pharmaceuticals is w profiting from new markets and exporting masks to Italy, where death toll has overtaken that of China. In first two months of year, a staggering 8,950 new manufacturers started producing masks in China, according to business data platform Tianyancha racing to fill huge gap in demand.

But after virus epicentre of Hubei province was placed on lockdown and initial frenzy began to die down in China, virus outbreaks emerged in new hotspots elsewhere in world.Globally more than 400,000 have been infected with dely coronavirus, and demand for protective equipment is still soaring as nations across globe battle outbreak. "A mask machine is a real cash printer," said Shi Xinghui, sales manr of an N95 mask machine company in Dongguan city, souastern Guangdong province.

" profit of a mask w is at least several cents compared to less than one in past. "Printing 60,000 or 70,000 masks a day is equivalent to printing money." Qi Guangtu has put more than 50 million yuan (USD 7 million) into his factory producing mask-making machines in sourn industrial hub of Dongguan.

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It has been in 24-hour continuous production since January 25  two days after dramatic lockdown of Wuhan, where virus first emerged. "Cost recovery is certainly t a problem," he said, ding that 70 sets of equipment have been sold for more than 500,000 yuan (USD 71,000) each.

He has more than 200 ditional orders in hand, worth over 100 million yuan (14 million). " machines pay for mselves in 15 days, " said Qi, saying investment is worth it for his clients. Manufacturer You Lixin h never set foot in a mask factory before. But as market soared and he saw opportunity, it took him just ten days from first deciding to enter industry to delivering automated machines capable of producing masks. "I slept two or three hours a day, so did my clients," he said.

You's clients also slept in his plant, waiting desperately to collect ir new machinery. Some of m are garment factory owners in Wenzhou, eastern Zhejiang province, who h switched to producing face masks. "y were facing orders y h insufficient capacity to deliver, and y couldn't make deliveries," You said.

" panic intensified as crisis accelerated at that time." high levels of mask production has dramatically pushed up prices for raw materials. According to Guan, price of fabric has risen astromically -- from 10,000 yuan to 480,000 yuan per tonne.

Producer Liao Biao struggled to bring back components of mask machine piece by piece from outside Hunan Province in late January, with cross province border closed. Finally, to pay an expert tester for mask machines, Liao paid more than ten times rmal price. "Investment is blind w," You said.

But despite rising costs of production, profits still make industry appealing. According to China's official figures, China's daily mask production has passed 116 million w, with many meeting overseas demand. Guan has alrey delivered one million masks to Italy, while Shi currently has more than 200 orders from South Korea and countries in European Union.

"Dongguan remains world's factory," said Shi. " first peak of orders was during middle of February. w re is a second wave because of pandemic," said Shi. Liao is also seeking to export his masks to Europe and Cana. " demand for masks has been alleviated at home -- w we can have some surplus to support or countries," said Liao. "We are willing to help ors." And Guan is optimistic about future of industry beyond outbreak. "Most people will have habit wearing a mask after this outbreak," said Guan. "I'll stay in industry."

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