The crazy mask market is expected to stabilize during the Lantern Festival.

on the one hand, the supply side began to exert its strength.

On February 8th, China National Textile and Apparel Council revealed that more than 6% of medical and health textile enterprises have started to resume production. Thousands of enterprises, including masks and protective clothing, were thoroughly investigated, and Changyi member enterprises resumed work and production.

by noon on the 7th, Sinopec had completed 11 mask production lines with its partners, and was about to enter the equipment installation procedure. According to preliminary estimates, Sinopec will help increase the production capacity of masks by 13, pieces per day, and on the 29th, it will increase the production capacity to 6, pieces per day.

in addition, tangible hands began to intervene. Prior to this, on February 5, the State Administration of Market Supervision issued a notice, demanding that price violations of prevention and control materials such as masks be severely and promptly investigated.

for more than half a month, the volunteers who witnessed all kinds of chaos in the mask market told the truth (pseudonym), and they are still worried.

"I've seen all the counterfeiters, swindlers who collect money but don't deliver goods, and middlemen who hoard goods." The truth is filled with indignation.

since January 21st, the mask market has been undercurrent for 19 days.

Huge demand surprise

But Li Ke's Taobao shop focuses on daily necessities such as mothers and babies, and masks are just Korean products that he usually buys at will.

under the rush of buying, masks in Li ke's shop were quickly out of stock.

in order to meet the soaring demand of customers as much as possible, Li ke canceled the original scheduled trip and began to actively look for goods.

Even though Li Ke's shop has been selling masks from Japan and South Korea for a long time, he has accumulated some resources from local suppliers, but Li Ke felt extremely difficult to find masks from the beginning.

"In the past, everyone imported cosmetics and skin care products from Korea, and rarely imported masks from Korea. Our demand for masks is also sudden for South Korea. Moreover, the Korean Spring Festival is also a holiday. " Li ke said.

As of February 4th, the monthly sales of KF94 masks in Li Ke's store exceeded 25,, which shows that they are out of stock.

As a daily necessities Taobao shop, Li Ke didn't expect to receive demands from hospitals in urgent need of medical supplies and the frontline of epidemic situation.

under the condition of material shortage, he chose to send the mask for private use to the place where he needed it more.

"On January 3th, a little girl in Wuhan didn't have a mask, so I gave her the mask for private use first." Li Ke, who lives in Hangzhou, thinks that Wuhan people need masks more than he does.

In Li Ke's view, the mask situation is changing every day, and he is "pushed away" these days.

Yanzhen, who came from an e-commerce, has similar feelings.

According to the truth, on New Year's Eve, I have no intention of celebrating the New Year.

He saw in a WeChat group that a first-line hospital said that there was a gap cover and protective clothing; In another group, he saw that some enthusiasts and foundations said they wanted to raise materials for the front line but lacked channels; In the circle of friends, he saw someone saying that there was a source of goods.

"I just want to gather information to facilitate the docking of demand and supply." On the first day of the new year, Yanzhen established a new group, which collected the resources of the mask factory that could be contacted after the original work and provided them to those in need.

To Yan Zhen's surprise, the WeChat group he established attracted more and more people.

"People keep looking for me, and people keep joining the group, and many of them are in urgent need of help in the procurement of first-line hospitals."

A health bureau in a certain place turned to Yanzhen for help. Photo courtesy of respondents

Profit-seekers flocked

Before the outbreak of the epidemic, the domestic market was not short of cover.

According to the data released by China Textile Business Association, the output of masks reached 4.54 billion in 218.

On January 29th, Miao Wei, Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said in Tianjin that the maximum production capacity of masks in China is more than 2 million a day.

However, the demand for masks broke out during the Spring Festival when the mask factory stopped production.

On January 28th, after a comprehensive survey of the production and inventory of masks in the city, the Shanghai Economic and Information Committee said that the shortage of masks was due to the production suspension during the Spring Festival holiday. "Most of the 26 production enterprises in Shanghai have stopped production for the holiday, and the workers returned home, the supply of raw materials stopped, and the logistics stopped."

The mask factory stopped production and the demand soared. "From the first day of the New Year (January 25th), the battle for masks has begun." Tell the truth.

according to the observation, starting from 25th, characters such as Wechat business, who have access to the resources of manufacturers, will smell business opportunities and start grabbing brand masks such as 3M.

On 26th, he heard the news that the agent of 3M started to control masks, which showed that the sellers who claimed to get the domestic 3M masks were not trustworthy except regular institutions.

on the 27th, Yanzhen discovered that a mask factory with stock appeared for external supply.

Faced with limited mask resources, middlemen hoard goods and live in strange places.

The hype about the price of masks in the market is even more disgusting.

according to the truth, in order to make a profit, middlemen who have masks will try their best to compare prices for a long time after receiving many copies of money, and finally sell them to the buyers with high bids.

What makes the truth even more desperate is that there is far more than one middleman between suppliers and buyers.

To tell the truth, an ordinary single medical mask will become the 4 yuan in the market even more and more if it is resold by many hands from a few cents at the source. "Many Wechat business come out, and you don't know how many hands the mask you have passed."

As the end of multi-level chain, it is difficult for ordinary consumers to buy regular masks at a relatively reasonable price.

On the evening of February 4th, in the "Mask-Protective Clothing Needs Group" established by Yanzhen, a netizen sent a message: "There are 2 Japanese N95 masks with air valves, which can be received in three days, and each is 65 yuan."

Photo courtesy of the interviewee

After being questioned by a group of friends about the high price, the netizen posted a price comparison of the same type of mask sold by an e-commerce, indicating that his price was reasonable.

On January 2th, half a month ago, a pack of 3M brand N95 masks was sold in Ali Pharmacy in 3 yuan, and the unit price was only in 1 yuan.

fakes quietly entered the market.

because of the fear that the first-line purchase of masks failed, Yanzhen also set up a "medical material appraisal group", and the source of goods can be sent to the group to seek the appraisal of professionals such as doctors in the group.

during this period, Yan Zhen found that 8% of the fakes were identified in the group.

volunteers who coordinate protective materials are angry at the chaos, and it is difficult for respondents to provide pictures.

What's more, they directly swindle with "empty gloves and white wolves".

I have experienced it personally. "The liar claims to be a direct supplier from the manufacturer. After receiving the money, he will shirk the delivery three times and two times. For a while, he will say that the customs will not work, and for a while, he will say that the logistics will not work. After spreading the net, he will run away with money."

since then, in order to avoid similar phenomena, Yanzhen has always stressed to buyers that it is necessary to be more wary of upstream sellers and suggested adopting a bank remittance model that is easy to recover the payment.

however, under the fission spread of wechat, buyers still entered the scam one after another.

"Many scams are not difficult to detect, but most demanders are in urgent need of masks, and there is not enough time to identify them clearly when the front line is tight." I really feel powerless.

overseas sources are a drop in the bucket

at the same time, overseas sources are constantly emerging.

According to the truth, masks from foreign countries are very rich. As far as he is concerned, there are United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, India and Russia.

however, overseas sources are just a drop in the bucket in meeting market demand.

Taking South Korea as an example, Jianghan (pseudonym), who has lived in Lianyungang for a long time, volunteered to help domestic buyers connect with Korean suppliers to purchase masks after the outbreak of mask demand.

"The industrial chain between China and South Korea is very close, and the raw materials for masks produced in Korea also need to be imported from China, but there is a shortage of raw materials in China." Jiang Han said.

The phenomenon of price gouging in the domestic mask market quickly spread to foreign countries.

Li ke bluntly said that in the recent docking with Korean suppliers, because the price was not as high as that of the bidders, it was a common phenomenon that the orders were destroyed, and his goods could only come in from various suppliers bit by bit.

"But so far, 8% or 9% of the deposit I paid has not been received." Li ke said.

In fact, overseas masks also have problems of different quality.

according to the truth, some expired products in masks from foreign sources have entered the market as good products, while the introduction of products in other languages has deceived many people without knowing the truth.

In addition, there are problems in logistics customs clearance and transportation of overseas goods, and the relevant policies of other countries also hinder the smooth purchase and return of masks. Some countries began to ban the export of protective materials abroad.

On January 31st, official website, the Indian General Administration of Foreign Trade, issued a notice prohibiting the export of personal protective equipment such as masks and protective clothing during the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic.

"Crazy" will calm

the crazy "mask" market, which is expected to stabilize.

Local market supervision bureaus are strengthening the investigation and punishment of fake and shoddy masks and sitting on the ground to start bidding in the market.

On February 4th, a few days ago, Beijing cracked the first case of selling fake masks across provinces, arrested four suspects and seized more than 21, fake 3M brand masks.

On February 3, Gan Lin, deputy director of the State Administration of Market Supervision, said at the press conference that the behavior of sitting on the ground and "making money out of the epidemic" should be cracked down resolutely, and the overall price order is basically stable at present. As of February 1st, the whole system dispatched 39, price enforcement officers, and put 1,413 cases of price violations on file.

The production capacity of masks in China is increasing continuously.

On February 2, at the press conference held by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Cao Xuejun, deputy director of the Consumer Goods Industry Department, said that at present, the rate of returning to work of mask enterprises is 6%, and according to the total production capacity, the output per day exceeds 1 million.

some enterprises that didn't produce masks have also announced that they will join the production capacity one after another.

On February 6th, according to media reports, entrusted by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, China Petrochemical will build a mask production line to give full play to its advantages in producing raw materials. At present, China Petrochemical has contacted the mask manufacturers and mask machine manufacturers that lack meltblown cloth, and the mask machine is in stock.

in addition, local governments are constantly promoting the work of increasing the production capacity of masks, and some large enterprises such as Foxconn and SAIC-GM-Wuling have also joined the ranks of mask production, and their production capacity has been rapidly improved.