Hong Kong Economic Times (HKET), the leading financial daily in Hong Kong, recently reported that a large number of Chinese mask manufacturers have filed for bankruptcy. With the spread of the coronavirus, the global demand for masks fueled a rush in China to manufacture more masks. However, most of the international customers have high quality requirements. This has led the Chinese government to enforce manufacturing standards that are much more strict in order to battle massive international returns. Tougher quality checks in China resulted in a sudden widespread bankruptcy of mask makers in China. An online video showed a huge pile of low-quality masks left in front of a factory in the city of Anqing, which is China’s primary manufacturing base for protective masks. Many mask companies in Anqing also stopped manufacturing because of the dramatic increase in the price of raw materials and manufacturing machinery. Now the masks produced there are very hard to export.
Source: HKET, May 6, 2020
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