SOEs to produce 70-ton mask material per day

As 20 new assembly lines introduced by centrally-administrated State-owned enterprises, including Sinopec and National Petroleum Corporation, have been put into operation, the daily output of melt-blown nonwovens — an essential raw material for medical masks — is expected to hit 70 tons in April, according to Xinhua News Agency, citing the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

Centrally-administered SOEs are going all-out in production of melt-blown nonwovens, which is used for the microbe-intercepting middle layer of face masks. The move is an effective way to ensure sufficient market supply, and helpful in stabilizing the prices of anti-epidemic materials.

CHTC Jiahua Nonwoven Co Ltd, a subsidiary of China National Machinery Industry Corporation, has transformed its existing production lines for melt-down fabrics, with production capacity increasing to 30 tons a day, ranking first in China.

As of today, the capacity has doubled in half a month to 42.5 tons per day, registering over 1,500 tons in cumulative supply for 1.5 billion masks.

Six central SOEs, including Sinopec Group, China National Machinery Industry Corp, Aviation Industry Corporation of China, China North Industries Group Corp and China Electronics Corp, have also started to invest in machines for medical materials, including 755 mask machines, and 1014 vacuum plodders, with output capacity of 120,000 pieces of protective clothing and 70 million medical masks per day.