Masks … and … – “made in China”

What a coincidence?   Many companies in China, including underwear and ship makers, have transformed their businesses to cater to the rising demand for masks amid the coronavirus epidemic. Now, a new participant has joined the list: China’s leading new energy vehicle manufacturer BYD.   In BYD’s Baolong industrial garden in the southern metropolis of Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, more than 600 workers were packaging and examining the masks churned out from 100 production lines in a 15,000-square-meter factory.

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Toeval – nee beslis nie –  hoe vinnig het besighede in China omgeskakel en verander, veral as daar geld begroot is vir “aanpassings maak”, maar ‘n sekerheid het dat dit wat vervaardig word, gaan uiteindelik verkoop word.    Massa produksies het  binne etlike aantal dae begin produseer.

China, reeds bekend as die land waar die virus aanvanklik begin het,  wat selfs ook baie virus gevalle gehad het, se besighede het goed afgeskop en sommer flink en vinnig oorgeslaan om maskers en ander materiaal / toerusting te vervaardig.  Spesifiek gerig om aan die behoefte en aanvraag wêreldwyd, te voorsien.     Alles  word ook wêreldwyd versprei en goeie inkomste vir die Chinese besighede en ekonomie. 

Natuurlik is dit chaos in ander lande se kleinsake – besighede, wat intussen meestal in duie gestort en heelwat gaan nie verder voort nie.  Massas werkloosheid is die gevolg en “afhanklikheid” van regerings, veral soos Suid-Afrika.   Toeval?

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China’s richest man, Alibaba wholesales founder Jack Ma, jumped into action, providing two million masks to be distributed across European countries.

Ma pledged a total of 1.1 million coronavirus test kits, 6 million masks and 60,000 medical protective suits and face shields to the African continent. Earlier this month, Ethiopia received 1.5 million test kits, 5.4 million face masks and tons of other medical supplies.

http://www.rfi.fr/en/business/20200327-face-mask-diplomacy-benefits-chinese-billionaires-coronavirus-export-shift-epicentre-wuhan-europe-united-states-covid19

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April 2020

China has sold nearly four billion masks to foreign countries since March, officials said Sunday, as they tried to stem widespread fears over the quality of medical exports.   Despite Chinese cases dwindling, Beijing has encouraged factories to increase production of medical supplies as the pandemic kills over 60,000 globally and parts of the world face a protective equipment shortage.   China has exported 3.86 billion masks, 37.5 million pieces of protective clothing, 16,000 ventilators and 2.84 million COVID-19 testing kits since March 1, customs official Jin Hai said, with orders to more than 50 countries. 

However numerous nations – including the Netherlands, the Philippines, Croatia, Turkey and Spain – have complained about substandard or faulty medical products shipped from China.    The Dutch government recalled 600,000 masks out of a Chinese shipment of 1.3 million that did not meet quality standards.   Spain also rejected thousands of rapid test kits sent by an unauthorized Chinese company after it found that they were unreliable.

https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/04/06/covid-19-china-says-it-has-sold-nearly-four-billion-masks-abroad.html

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The company quickly formed a research team, and drew more than 400 equipment drafts within three days. They then spent seven days turning the drafts into actual machines. For each mask-making machine, BYD took charge of 90 percent of the 1,300-plus components, including the gears, chains and rollers. Within a month, BYD created 100 mask production lines.

On Feb. 17, BYD’s first batch of masks went offline. Each line can make 50,000 masks a day. With the new production lines, BYD is able to make five million masks and 300,000 bottles of disinfectant on a daily basis, making the company one of the biggest mask manufacturers in the world.

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-03/16/c_138883476.htm

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The task force moved with incredible speed, and in less than two weeks, it had finished work that normally takes two months to complete. It completed both the R&D and manufacturing process of mask production equipment within seven days, whereas on the market, it would normally take 15 to 30 days to fully manufacture a mask-producing machine. At the same time, BYD also completed the R&D of medical-grade hand sanitizers in six days, which were then shipped to medical staff on the front lines of the epidemic after just eight days.

BYD’s strong R&D capabilities, combined with its manufacturing facilities and creativity, have enabled the firm to mass-produce quality masks in a short period of time, reflecting its unremitting efforts throughout the epidemic. Mask production requires impeccably clean and sterile environments and equipment, and BYD’s dust-free rooms, previously used for the assembly of smartphones, are particularly well-suited for this. During the Spring Festival period, the company was unable to obtain mask-making equipment rapidly enough, so it set about making its own machines. BYD can now make more than a dozen of these machines a day.

As a multitude of orders have come after the company announced its production of masks and disinfectants, the most pertinent challenge was the rapid expansion of its production capacity to meet the demand for these much-needed items. With the company making about five to ten new mask-producing machines on a daily basis, the number of masks produced by BYD is increasing at a rate of approximately 300,000 to 500,000 units per day. It currently has a total production capacity of five million masks per day, which is equivalent to a quarter of China’s entire production capacity in early February.

http://www.byd.com/en/news/2020-03-13/BYD-Unveils-World%27s-Largest-Mass-Produced-Face-Masks-Plant

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https://www.bbn-inc.com/mouth-mask/kn95-face-mask-line.html

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https://www.china-packagemachine.com/about-us

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China’s auto manufacturer BYD on Friday announced that it has created the world’s largest mass-produced face masks plant at one of its industrial parks in Shenzhen.
The plant is now running at full capacity and is able to produce 5 million masks and 300,000 bottles of disinfectants per day, the company said in a release.

On February 8, the newly-built production lines in one of BYD’s industrial parks in Shenzhen started to produce these critical supplies, with hundreds of staff working both day and night shifts along with machines working around the clock.

In late January, BYD began to assist in the production of masks and disinfection gels to tackle the growing COVID-19 outbreak. A special task force was appointed by BYD Chairman and President Wang Chuanfu, consisting of leaders from different business divisions and more than 3,000 engineers involved in research and development, design, processing and other roles.

“A production line for high-quality face masks requires about 1,300 parts for various gears, chains, and rollers, 90 per cent of which are BYD’s self-made parts,” said Sherry Li, Director General of BYD’s President Office.

“For BYD’s electronics business, the high-end mobile phones that we produce have high requirements in terms of quality, waterproofing and other aspects. This also comes with our high standards for moulds, automated equipment, manufacturing processes, and more,” said Zhao Jianping, General Manager of BYD’s Quality Division. “In other words, the equipment that we already have offers precision and quality that is much higher than what is commonly required to produce masks.”

According to the Chinese government’s quality inspection department, the quality of BYD’s masks is significantly better than similar masks in the industry.

As a multitude of orders have come after the company announced its production of masks and disinfectants, the most pertinent challenge was the rapid expansion of its production capacity to meet the demand for these much-needed items.

With the company making about five to ten new mask-producing machines on a daily basis, the number of masks produced by BYD is increasing at a rate of approximately 300,000 to 500,000 units per day. It currently has a total production capacity of five million masks per day, which is equivalent to a quarter of China’s entire production capacity in early February.
https://auto.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/chinas-byd-says-its-now-worlds-largest-face-mask-maker/74608205