As supplies from China have dried up, factories in western France have become an unlikely outpost to resolve high-level shortages.
An employee inspects its Kolmi Hopen factory in France before packing French masks. Reputable…Elliott Verdier of The New York Times
Angers, France-This week, machines roared endlessly, resounding across French factory buildings. This was the unexpected result of a deadly virus that almost paralyzed cities in China and other parts of Asia. The company Kolmi Hopen happens to produce a product that has suddenly become one of the hottest commodities in the world: medical masks.
This factory in Angers usually manufactures about 170 million masks per year, but last week’s orders reached a staggering 1 billion, which flooded the sales department’s inboxes, shifting every two minutes. Kolmi Hopen is racing to hire more workers to keep the machine running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Guillaume Laverdure, chief operating officer of Medicom Canada, Kolmi Hopen’s parent company, said: “We are making masks as quickly as possible.” At that time, the forklift driver moved a box of fresh masks into the truck.
The outbreak of the coronavirus has set off a gas mask craze in China and other major cities. In order to contain the spread of the virus, the Chinese government has ordered citizens to wear masks every time they go out. Medical experts say that once used, masks must be replaced with fresh ones, which has led to a surge in demand. The grim scene of people waiting in line for hours to obtain protective facial coverings, only to be turned away after the pharmacy was used up.
“I can’t find a mask,” Lu Shanshan, 60, said in Hong Kong. “I don’t know which stores have stocks.” She said she reused old masks, “because what else can I do?”
Most of the masks in the world are made in China and Taiwan. But factories there, including those operated by Medicom, were forced to temporarily suspend exports to meet government requirements to provide reserves for crazy residents.
On Monday, the Chinese government acknowledged the urgent need for medical masks and other protective equipment and said it would start importing masks from Europe, Japan and the United States to make up for the shortage.
It makes the Kolmi Hopen outpost in western France an impossible hot spot. As buyers of medical supplies searched for global products from mask manufacturers, the phone of the factory kept ringing.
Mr. Laverdure said that the demand for high-permeability respiratory masks is particularly strong. Compared with surgical masks, these respiratory masks are more effective in spreading virus-laden droplets. Another Medicom factory in Augusta, Georgia, which makes masks, is also increasing production. Mr. Laverdure declined to discuss financial details, including the cost of masks.
Scientists say that there is not much evidence that masks can actually protect healthy people. (Hand washing may be more important.) However, with the spread of the coronavirus, thousands of confirmed cases and hundreds of deaths, experts worry that the supply of masks and other health protection products will decrease in other countries, even for routine use. Medical use. Pharmacies in the United States have begun to report shortages.
The order frenzy at Kolmi Hopen shows that if the factories there are not fully functional, China may even cause massive destruction of the most professional products in the global supply chain.
China alone produces about half of the world’s sanitary masks, about 20 million per day, or more than 7 billion per year, providing products for hospitals and medical staff in many countries. Taiwan accounts for 20% of global supply.
Production has slowed down due to Chinese factories taking a holiday during the Lunar New Year holiday in early January. The government stated that some locations near Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, have not yet fully resumed production and are operating at approximately 60% of production capacity.
Medicom’s factory in Wuhan that produces surgical gowns is one of the factories delayed to reopen. The company’s mask production base in Taiwan no longer allows exports. Mr. Ravidul said that at Medicom’s Shanghai factory, the government sent monitors and asked them to produce 3 million masks off the production line every day.
The fact that parts for masks and respirators are produced in many countries may make the supply shortage worse. According to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than 90% of surgical masks sold in the United States are produced abroad. Parts (sometimes even final assembly) may not only be available in China and Taiwan, but also in Japan, Vietnam, Mexico and Colombia.
Policy expert and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Laurie Garrett said: “These countries can easily cut off our supply chains.” He has written articles about SARS, Ebola and other epidemics.
As China’s pipelines to the outside world dry up, global medical suppliers, including giants such as Honeywell and 3M, are scrambling to find alternative sources. Both companies said through representatives that they are experiencing a surge in demand and are doing everything they can to increase production.
Prestige Ameritech, a mask manufacturer in North Richland Hills, Texas, is one of the companies that has received international orders in recent weeks because the coronavirus has spread to 24 countries in the past few weeks, including the governments of Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.
“I received thousands of emails from Asians,” said Mike Bowen, executive vice president. “Last week, I sent more than one million masks to China. This is one thing I never expected, and that is I want to send masks to China.”
The Pardam company in the Czech Republic produces nanofibers that capture nanoparticles. Due to low demand, the company almost abandoned the prototype sanitary mask it tested last year. Jiri Kus, chairman of the Czech Nanotechnology Industry Association, said that after the coronavirus attack, Padam sold out its inventory of 2,000 masks in two days last week and turned to automation to increase production. .
At Medicom, officials this week formulated an emergency plan to add 30 new employees to a 100-person factory for the Angers plant in order to achieve all-weather production. Mr. Laverdure said that the company has to take out one million masks every day, twice the normal number.
Inside the factory, more than a dozen machines assemble masks at a rate of 80 pieces per minute, combining synthetic fibers unrolled from huge spools and punching them with nose bands, headbands or earrings. Five machines made surgical masks, which are thin rectangular pads that cover the nose and mouth, while other machines pieced together stronger breathing masks.
Four workers, including two new immigrants, began their training this week. They inspected a batch of coveted breathing masks, stacked them in boxes, and shipped them to warehouses for shipment to Hong Kong and other destinations.
Medicom has experienced SARS, H1N1 and Ebola virus crises. Following reports of the coronavirus in December, executives organized a war room at the Montreal headquarters to monitor the development of its European and North American sites and its factories in Wuhan, Shanghai and Taiwan and make production plans.
Mr. Laverdure said: “When we saw the closure of Chinese cities, the government extended the Lunar New Year and then stopped the export of masks. We called the factory and said:’The epidemic is developing. Try our best to ensure more coverage.’ ”
Kolmi Hopen was able to quickly increase production because its raw material suppliers are located in France and nearby European countries. Mr. Laverdure said that despite this, these companies have been trying to extend factory working hours and are eager to hire more workers to meet demand, adding: “This puts a lot of pressure on the supply chain, which is not easy to manage.”
With the Chinese government setting up a large-scale quarantine camp near the epicenter of the outbreak this week, the company is ready to catch up.
Knvul Sheikh and David Yaffe-Bellany from New York, Cao Li and Tiffany May from Hong Kong, and Hana de Goeij from Prague reported.