China’s once-booming mask makers struggle after price drop | Malay Mail

Workers make protective masks at a factory in Handan, Hebei province, China, January 22, 2020. — China Daily picture via Reuters

More than 73,000 companies registered as mask makers in the first half of the year — including over 36,000 new companies in April alone — as prices and demand soared. “Our orders have been slashed five or sixfold since April,” said Yang Hao, a sales director at CCST, a company in the southern city of Shenzhen that makes air purifiers but added masks to its repertoire.Some of the companies that piled into the industry are now backing out.

“Our company has several business lines, we stepped up the production of masks when the pandemic hard-hit China, but we will shift back to our other productions in the future,” said one sales director surnamed Xu at a company that makes medical products in northern Hebei province. The government used mask donations as a propaganda tool described by analysts as “mask diplomacy” to deflect blame for the virus.Exports to the United States are done via a third country due to soaring diplomatic tensions between Washington and Beijing, CCST’s Yang said.

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