The heart of the mask - why is there a shortage of melt blown fabric?

In the case of continuous prevention and control of the new crown epidemic, many places have resumed work and production. Among them, masks are still a necessity and are still in short supply.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, in order to cope with the shortage of domestic mask supply, in addition to traditional mask manufacturers fully resuming and expanding production, many companies including Sinopec have also produced masks across borders, and domestic mask production has also increased significantly.

According to the data disclosed by the National Development and Reform Commission on March 2, as of February 29, 2020, including ordinary masks (without the function of blocking viruses), medical masks, and medical N95 masks, the national daily production capacity of masks has reached 110 million pieces. The output reached 116 million; compared with the data of the same period on February 1, it increased by 5.2 times and 12 times respectively.

Among them, production capacity of medical N95 masks reached 1.96 million and 1.66 million respectively.

Although the production of masks has doubled several times, in the face of the needs of hundreds of millions of people across the country, the supply capacity of masks is still stretched. Among them, melt blown fabric has become a key factor restricting the growth of mask production capacity.

What is melt blown fabric?

Meltblown fabric, also known as the heart of the mask, is the key material for the virus filtering effect of the mask, and is used in the filter layer in the middle of the mask.

In terms of processing technology, melt-blown fabric is a non-woven material formed from high polymers such as polypropylene, which are blown by high-speed hot air to form ultra-fine fibers, and bonded by themselves under the action of air flow.

Compared with other types of materials, melt-blown fabric has finer fibers and larger specific surface area, so it also has better filterability, shielding, heat insulation and oil absorption. It is used in thermal insulation materials, filter materials, oil-absorbing environmental protection materials, and battery separators. , sound insulation materials, medical supplies and other fields have a wide range of applications.

At present, there are many domestic manufacturers capable of producing meltblown fabric, and the entire industry is small and scattered. Except for a few large manufacturers whose daily output can exceed 10 tons, most small manufacturers have a daily production capacity of 10 tons of meltblown fabric. 1 ton, or even less than 1 ton.

According to statistics from the China Industrial Textiles Industry Association, in 2018, the domestic output of melt blown fabric was 53,500 tons per year.

Can the current domestic production capacity of melt blown fabric meet the demand?

If a medical N95 mask uses 3-4 grams of melt-blown fabric and a disposable medical mask uses 1 gram of melt-blown fabric, one ton of melt-blown fabric can produce more than 300,000 medical N95 masks, or 1 million Disposable medical masks.

According to the report of the CCID Research Institute of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in 2019, the production capacity of masks in mainland China exceeded 5 billion, of which medical masks that can be used for virus protection accounted for 54%.

Based on this calculation, among the current daily output of 116 million masks, there are about 60 million medical masks capable of virus protection per day.

This can roughly calculate the daily demand for melt-blown fabric. For 1.66 million N95 melt-blown fabric masks per day, the required melt-blown fabric is about 5.5 tons per day; Meltblown fabric is about 60 tons per day.

It seems that the production capacity required for the melt-blown fabric required for masks is not large, but in fact, the vast majority of melt-blown fabric in China are currently used in industrial filtration, automotive sound insulation, environmental protection oil absorption, wipes, etc., and are used in medical treatment A large part of the meltblown fabric in the hygiene field is used to make surgical gowns, protective fabricing, diapers, feminine hygiene products, etc.

What's more worth mentioning is that the quality and requirements of the meltblown fabric used for medical masks are higher, and it cannot simply be replaced by meltblown fabric for other purposes.

At the same time, due to the rapid increase in the production capacity of mask machines recently, the demand for melt blown fabric has also increased. In addition, some companies are worried about the supply of raw materials and hoard some sources of supply, which has exacerbated the current shortage of melt blown fabric in the market.

It is difficult to expand the production capacity of melt blown fabric

Can meltblown fabric expand the production scale rapidly in a short period of time like a mask machine?

The answer is also negative, whether it is new melt-blown fabric equipment, or through other types of melt-blown fabric production, it is difficult to quickly increase the production capacity of melt-blown fabric for masks in a short period of time.

The mask machine is relatively simple from parts production to machine assembly. There are also a large number of mask machine manufacturers in China for you to choose from. After the Spring Festival, a large number of mask machine production capacity has been newly installed in various places, which has also led to a skyrocketing demand for melt blown fabric.

Why is the investment in the field of melt blown fabric production not as hot as the mask machine?

The production process of melt blown fabric is more complicated, involving many disciplines such as spinning science, air flow science, fluid mechanics, polymer science, etc. The requirements for equipment manufacturing are high, and the supply cycle of key components is long.

At present, there are not many manufacturers in China that can provide complete sets of production equipment and key components for melt blown fabric, including Hongda Research Institute Co., Ltd. under China Hengtian Group, and Shaoyang Textile Machinery Co., Ltd. under China Textile Machinery (Group) Co., Ltd. wait.

Foreign companies include Japan's Carson, Germany's ENKA, Japan's spinneret and other companies.

The delivery cycle of meltblown fabric production equipment is much longer than that of mask machines.

The normal supply time of many of the above-mentioned manufacturers is more than one year, and the price of the whole set of equipment basically exceeds 3 million yuan, and the price of imported equipment can exceed 10 million yuan.

In addition, the staff of the meltblown fabric production equipment also need to undergo special training, the threshold requirements are higher, and the equipment is damaged, and special equipment maintenance personnel need to be contacted, which increases the difficulty of investment in meltblown fabric production.

An investment of nearly 10 million yuan is not a small amount for any company, and it will take more than half a year to actually arrive and put into production. At this time, the epidemic may have ended long ago, and the high price of melt blown fabric has passed, and manufacturers will face huge losses. risk.

It is also more difficult to switch from other types of production lines to produce medical mask melt blown fabric.

Many industry insiders said that the fiber fineness of melt blown fabric used for medical masks, even medical N95 masks, is smaller, and the requirements for electrostatic electret and other process links are also higher. Ordinary spunbonded fabric production lines, or other types of melt It is not easy to change the spraying line.

To solve the problem of mask supply, central enterprises are in action

In order to solve the shortage of medical supplies such as masks, companies including BYD, Foxconn, and Shanghai Electric have produced masks across borders, and of course large central enterprises are also indispensable.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic, China Shipbuilding Group has urgently organized the production of flat mask machines, N95 mask machines, layering machines and ultrasonic welding machines for masks and other key medical material production equipment.

According to the plan of China Shipbuilding Corporation, it is estimated that around mid-March, the mask machines, plodders and other equipment produced by it will be delivered in batches.

Subsidiaries of SINOMACH used their original production lines to urgently switch to producing medical masks and protective fabricing. At present, the production capacity of flat medical masks has exceeded 1.1 million per day, and the production capacity of protective fabricing will also reach more than 10,000 sets per day.

As an important raw material-polypropylene supplier, petrochemical companies have begun to produce masks across borders in addition to continuing to supply related raw materials at low prices.

As of February 29, the six medical mask production lines invested and built by four subsidiaries of PetroChina have all been completed, and currently have a daily production capacity of 600,000.

According to PetroChina, all 21 mask production lines introduced will start construction one after another in March, and the production capacity of masks will exceed 1.5 million per day.

Sinopec has opened up the entire industrial chain of mask production, from the supply of polypropylene materials, to the production of melt blown fabric, and then to the production of masks.

On February 24, Sinopec spent 200 million yuan to sample 10 melt-blown fabric production lines, which will increase the daily production capacity of melt-blown fabric by 18 tons, which can produce 18 million disposable medical masks.

Among them, the two melt-blown fabric production lines built by Yanshan Petrochemical will be put into operation on March 8, and the production line of Yizheng Chemical Fiber will be put into operation in mid-April.

Prior to this, Sinopec also issued a hero post "I have melt blown fabric, who has a mask machine". Within a few hours, Sinopec confirmed the purchase of 11 mask machines.

It is estimated that by March, Sinopec will increase the daily production of about 1 million masks in Beijing.

At present, the government is stepping up efforts to fully promote the growth of mask production, and the production capacity of various mask manufacturers is also increasing.

It is expected that by mid-March, the total output of domestic masks will further increase, the effective supply of masks on the market will also increase significantly, and the tight supply of masks will be partially alleviated.