From the usual 20000 yuan/ton, rose to more than 30 million yuan/ton, the industry is expected to rise in the future... Melt-blown non-woven fabric (hereinafter referred to as the "heart" of the mask), nearly a month more than 15 times the price, the formation of a very strong seller's market.

During the outbreak, masks are important protective equipment, become a front-line health care, enterprises to resume work, people travel essential goods, market demand soared. National mask new production capacity "double-type" rapid increase, the core raw material melting cloth supply shortage.

How scarce are the core raw materials for masks? What are the root causes of the sharp rise in the price of meltblown cloth? Mask production lines put into operation in large quantities, why do not manufacturers take the opportunity to expand the production capacity of meltblown cloth? When can ease the tight supply of raw materials for masks? Reporters with related issues, tracking the mask upstream industry chain, the mask factory, cloth factory, material factory and other key aspects of production to investigate.

tight cloth

Meltblown cloth supply shortage, the rapid rise in prices, the formation of a very strong seller's market.

"Except for the meltblown cloth, everything else is fine." In a mask supply sharing exchange group, one manufacturer said so.

The group brings together more than a hundred mask industry upstream and downstream related manufacturers, they will exchange information related to masks in the group. Although the prices of materials such as ear bands and nose bars are also rising, the supply is not in short supply. Only meltblown cloth, the formation of a very strong seller's market.

"The recent inquiry meltblown cloth, offer at least 200000 yuan/ton above, 300 thousands or 400 thousands is not unusual. And two weeks ago, we purchased or 80000 yuan/ton, the highest is 120000 yuan/ton." A Shandong garment enterprise that switched to produce masks and other epidemic prevention materials recently "no way to seek materials", the company's head Ding Yan said that the rapid rise in meltblown cloth prices caught people off guard.

Melting cloth is a key material for the mask to bring virus filtration, called medical surgical masks and N95 masks "heart". Medical surgical masks generally use a multi-layer structure, referred to as SMS structure: the inner and outer sides are single-layer spunbond layer (S), and the middle is a single-layer or multi-layer meltblown layer (M). Meltblown cloth is the best material for meltblown layer.

Without meltblown cloth, you can only "let the machine wait for the cloth". Qingdao Hainuo Bioengineering Co., Ltd. has two medical surgical mask production lines and one civilian mask production line. They once reported to the local government that some production lines had to stop production because of the shortage of raw materials and could not get the goods.

"Meltblown cloth that meets medical standards cannot be bought with money now," said the head of Shengda Medical Sanitary Materials Co., Ltd., whose stock of meltblown cloth can only be used in early March. The company has a mask production line and two new lines will arrive in early March. By then, the daily demand for meltblown cloth will increase from the current 80 to 90kg to about 200kg. If meltblown cloth cannot be purchased, the new line will be difficult to be put into production. At present, the company has reported the demand information to the government departments, hoping to solve the problem of medical meltblown cloth gap in the near future.

Swarm of demand

In the melting cloth demand end, the number of new production capacity of masks is large, some manufacturers everywhere for materials, raise the price of cloth.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission, the current national mask capacity utilization rate has reached 110 percent, as of February 29, the national daily production of masks can reach 0.11 billion, the daily output reached 0.116 billion. At present, 30 provinces, autonomous regions and cities except Tibet have successively started new mask production lines, and at the same time, new mask production lines will be put into production. The person in charge of the China Textile Business Association said that in the future, the market demand for meltblown fabrics will further increase.

In order to alleviate the shortage of masks, the transformation of non-mask manufacturers into mask manufacturers has become an important way. At present, many governments have opened up green channels to speed up approval and encourage enterprises related to the industrial chain to switch to emergency. Based on the change information of industrial and commercial registration, from January 1 to February 7 alone, more than 3000 enterprises across the country have added "masks, protective clothing, disinfectants, thermometers, medical devices" and other businesses in their business scope.

In the "key medical prevention and control material production process docking area" launched by the State Council client program on February 21, the reporter saw that most enterprises are looking for meltblown cloth supply.

The reporter found that the recent surge in cloth prices is mainly reflected in small and medium-sized mask factories and new mask factories that have just been transferred to production. The relevant person in charge of the Shandong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology said that the price of masks is high and the production of masks is profitable. Coupled with the initiative of local governments, many companies have switched to produce masks, and the demand for raw materials has increased greatly and the supply cannot be oversupplied.

In order to ensure the supply of medical and nursing front-line epidemic prevention materials, the national and local industry and information departments have formulated a number of key material guarantee enterprises, the production of these mask factories, cloth factories by the government monitoring, sales by the government dispatch, price increases are relatively controllable. However, industry insiders believe that the recent emergence of a large number of mask factories, there is no stable supplier, can only look for raw materials everywhere, do not hesitate to chase high to buy materials.

A restless source of goods

At the supply end of the meltblown cloth, there are small factories sitting on the ground to start prices: at the circulation end of the meltblown cloth, there are middlemen who take the opportunity to earn the difference.

Walking into the factory area of Shandong Junfu Non-woven Fabric Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shandong Junfu) located in Dongying City, Shandong Province, the reporter saw a busy scene. It is reported that they have been working overtime since they received the notice from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on January 27, and all 10 production lines are fully loaded 24 hours a day. The daily output of meltblown cloth produced by Shandong Junfu is about 13 tons, accounting for 1/10 of the whole country. According to the dispatching of the state and relevant departments, it is mainly supplied to downstream enterprises in Hubei and Shandong.

There are not many large domestic manufacturers that can produce meltblown cloth. The industry has been short of attention for a long time, showing a tepid situation, and the industry as a whole presents a small and scattered situation. At present, the domestic meltblown cloth production capacity is mainly distributed in Shandong, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other provinces and cities.

On the supply side of meltblown cloth, large cloth factories are subject to government regulation and control, but there are also small factories sitting on the ground to start prices.

"Meltblown cloth usually price is about 20000 yuan/ton, now our price is 100000 yuan/ton, because we pressure prices, local small cloth factories dare not raise prices, but some lack of leading enterprises in the provinces, small cloth factories raise prices for each other, prices are above 200000 yuan/ton. Many small mask factories want to use our material, to the local government to coordinate, I answer 200 or 300 calls a day." Shandong Junfu general manager Huang Wensheng said.

Hubei Xiantao a mask factory official said, the current Xiantao local meltblown cloth price of about 200000 yuan/ton, and before the outbreak of the price is about 22000 yuan/ton; Jiangsu Nantong meltblown cloth manufacturers said, in order to make the mask production line can operate normally, a mask factory offered high prices to buy meltblown cloth.

Many small cloth factories that are not included in the list of mask raw materials are seriously raising prices. Lin Youqiang, head of a mask manufacturer in Shandong, said that meltblown cloth enterprises with stable customers at ordinary times should not arbitrarily raise prices to maintain customer relations. A group of enterprises without stable partners and poor management in the past maliciously raised prices in order to earn a quick sum of money.

According to industry insiders, some meltblown cloth suppliers are quite "strong" in the market, not only delivering less or not invoicing, but also requiring downstream factories to use "hard currency" masks at a discount and add cash.

At the circulation end of the meltblown cloth, there are also middlemen taking advantage of the difference.

A small and medium-sized enterprise owner who switched to produce masks told reporters that in some mask raw material resources docking WeChat groups, there are middlemen arbitrarily set high prices. "They opened their mouths and offered a high price of 300,000 to 500,000 per ton. Taking advantage of our lack of supply of goods and anxious production, they often said' if necessary, hurry up and transfer the money. You don't want to have plenty of people to take the goods' to create a sense of nervousness of' seconds rising and seconds killing."

A relevant person in charge of the Bureau of Industry and Information Technology of a city in Shandong said that many people hoard goods and greatly increase prices when they change hands. Many meltblown cloths stay in warehouses and circulation links, waiting for price increases, and supply and demand cannot be well matched.

a considerable profit

The reporter learned that the mask profit is amazing, is an important reason why the mask factory is willing to buy meltblown cloth at a high price.

An industry insider calculated a cost account for the reporter: 1 ton of meltblown cloth can be used as 1 million medical and surgical masks. If the meltblown cloth sells for 200000/ton, the cloth price only accounts for 0.2 yuan in the cost of a mask. At present, the price of masks allocated by the government from Shandong is about 1.5 yuan each, with an additional subsidy of 0.2 yuan. Each in Beijing is about 4 yuan, and each in Shanghai and Hubei is about 3 yuan. Although the recent logistics, labor, melt-blown polypropylene and other costs have doubled, but also in the mask price accounted for a small proportion.

On the other hand, the demand for mask procurement has increased significantly, and some enterprises that are anxious to resume work do not care about the price of raw materials, which has pushed up the price of masks. "Recently, there has been a wave of enterprises returning to work across the country. The state requires enterprises to issue masks and other protective equipment for their employees. If each employee of each enterprise uses a mask a day, this is an astronomical figure." Lin Youqiang said.

According to the data of the fourth national economic census, the total employment population of domestic legal entities and self-employed households is as high as 0.533 billion. Based on one mask per person per day, at least 0.533 billion masks are needed every day. Compared with the current Nissan energy, the mask gap is huge, the profit margin can be imagined.

Embarrassed "waist"

The production capacity of enterprises related to the mask industry chain is "gourd-shaped", which is one of the root causes of the shortage of melting cloth.

Yu Xiaoning, chairman of Shandong Dawn Group, said that at present, the downstream mask factory is growing rapidly, and the national production capacity has increased by about 2 times in the last month, which is "the bottom end of the gourd"; the production capacity of meltblown cloth in the middle reaches is growing slowly, and the number of manufacturers is small due to the small structural impact of the previous market, which is the "waist of the gourd, this is the" upper end of the gourd ". Take Dawn Group as an example. The company has received orders in the next 2 months. The daily production capacity of meltblown materials has expanded from about 85 tons to about 200 tons now.

This embarrassing "thin waist" has become a "bottleneck" restricting downstream expansion ".

Reporters found that behind the bottleneck of meltblown cloth production capacity, the production line is difficult to expand production and takes a long time.

Yu Xiaoning and other industry insiders said that compared with the mask production line, the investment is small, the technical content is not high, the replication is fast, and the operation is easy. The meltblown cloth production technology content is higher, and the quality of the meltblown cloth directly determines the quality of the mask, and the investment in the production line of the cloth factory is tens of millions. Yuan, tens of millions, equipment manufacturing and installation are much more complicated than mask production equipment, the requirements, and the requirements, and the need for special training.

At present, there are not many domestic manufacturers that provide complete sets of meltblown cloth production equipment and key components. The production of core components such as spinneret and spinneret still has a big gap with foreign manufacturers, and the delivery cycle and assembly time of imported equipment Both are relatively long. "The import delivery cycle of die heads and spinnerets takes four to six months. Domestic die heads can be delivered in two months, but such die heads with short delivery time cannot make high-end medical products." Huang Wensheng said.

The months-long parts procurement cycle limits the delivery capacity of meltblown cloth equipment, making it difficult to put it on the market "overnight" like a mask machine. It is understood that some companies that sell a complete set of meltblown cloth production equipment are using inventory to quickly assemble new production lines. However, the design, processing and debugging of a complete production line will take about two to three months.

A meltblown cloth production equipment supplier in Zhejiang said that the real introduction of the meltblown cloth production line, perhaps the epidemic brought about by the peak demand has long passed. This concern has prevented many investors from entering this area. Melting cloth market size is not large, once the outbreak is over, melting cloth manufacturers will be very competitive pressure.

Capacity to be tapped

Industry insiders pointed out that it is urgent to strengthen the overall planning of the industrial chain, tap the potential of related enterprises and leading enterprises, and maximize the production capacity of meltblown cloth.

Experts believe that in order to solve the problem of short supply of raw materials such as meltblown cloth in the mask industry chain, the following measures can be taken to ensure supply and price stability:

First, to promote similar technology and process enterprises to switch to supply mask materials.

According to the statistics of China Industrial Textile Industry Association, the production process of China's nonwovens industry is mainly spunbond. In 2018, the output of spunbonded nonwovens was 2.9712 million tons, accounting for 50% of the total output of nonwovens, mainly used in sanitary materials and other fields. However, the meltblown process accounts for only 0.9, and the output of meltblown nonwovens is 53500 tons/year. These meltblown fabrics are not only used for masks, but also for environmental protection materials, clothing materials, battery diaphragm materials, wiping materials, etc.

Huang Wensheng said that enterprises producing materials such as automobile sound insulation cotton, meltblown insulation cotton and meltblown oil absorption cotton can switch to special filter materials for mask protection, with an annual output of about 150000 tons. It is understood that BYD, Chang 'an Automobile, BAIC, SAIC and other automobile manufacturers have been using the advantages of the industrial chain to mobilize sound-absorbing cotton supporting manufacturers to transform the original meltblown cloth production line into special filter materials for masks.

Second, to the central enterprises as the leader, to speed up the horse melting cloth-related production line.

The relevant person in charge of the SASAC said that the SASAC attaches great importance to the changes in the supply chain and industrial chain of domestic epidemic prevention materials, and guides the central enterprises to take the initiative to make up for the shortcomings.

Since polypropylene, the raw material for meltblown cloth, is derived from petroleum, petrochemical companies have an advantage in producing meltblown cloth. Sinopec has invested about 0.2 billion yuan and is building 10 meltblown cloth production lines in Beijing Yanshan Petrochemical and Jiangsu Yizheng Chemical Fiber. After all of them are put into production, the daily output can reach 12 tons of N95 mask meltblown cloth or 18 tons of medical plane mask meltblown cloth, which can be processed into 18 million medical plane masks.

Third, strengthen government regulation and control to ensure the balance of upstream and downstream supply.

Lei Limin, vice president of the China Textile Business Association, said that at present, the production situation of enterprises in the mask industry chain is complex and information communication is not smooth, so it is difficult to accurately understand the real-time situation of the resumption rate and the new production line. Industry insiders believe that the mask industry chain presents "upstream raw material marketization, downstream mask administration", the contradiction between market mechanism and plan management is constantly emerging, it is recommended to take administrative means appropriate intervention, straighten out the convergence.

Yu Xiaoning said that in the face of the epidemic, overall decision-making from the central to the local level has solved many problems for the development of the industry. The next step is to strengthen the overall planning of the industrial chain, form an organic combination of the government, industry associations, and enterprises, and use big data to conduct comprehensive statistics on the number, distribution, production capacity, and production capacity under construction of mask factories, cloth factories, and raw material factories. In extraordinary times, entrepreneurs should organize all kinds of production work at the same time, should stand at the overall height to raise awareness, with good government scheduling, not only to complete the task of epidemic prevention, but also to make the market more orderly development.