Disposable protective masks produced by Wang Gang’s company. Photo provided by the interviewee
“The savings that we worked so hard to save suddenly returned to before liberation.” On June 2, Wang Gang (pseudonym), who invested in a mask production factory in Jining, described this to The Paper My experience in entering the mask market.
In mid-April, we invested in the production of masks. Two orders were placed within 10 days, and the production was completed in 3 days, with a profit of 300,000 to 400,000 yuan. Wang Gang recalled that at that time, seeing the mask machine was like seeing a golden mountain.
The situation then took a turn for the worse. At the end of April, as the market became saturated, supply exceeded demand, and there were no more big orders; mask profits also plummeted, and the more than 3 million invested by Wang Gang and his partners was about to be wasted.
On Labor Day, he felt that doing nothing was meaningless, so Wang Gang relied on playing games every day to anesthetize himself.
There is a saying in the industry: "The first come to live in the luxury house, and the later to live on the rooftop." The ones who make sure to make money without losing money are the "swindlers" of masks, raw materials and mask machines.
Most people in the industry avoid talking about rumors such as "mask machines are like money printing machines" and "mask-rich cities have created many millionaires". "Chinese people pay attention to not showing off their wealth. In addition, they are also worried about being scolded and the country's wealth will be in jeopardy."
One of them emphasized: "You only see those who are smiling, not those who are crying."
>Earning 150,000 a day, "I feel like I am just waiting to count the money."
In recent days, Wang Gang is considering changing careers.
In 2012, Wang Gang, who started out as a salesman, as a minority shareholder, opened a non-woven bag factory with his partners in Jining, Shandong. In 2016, it started to focus on foreign trade orders, with annual sales of more than 6 million, and the profits are quite considerable.
Because of lack of money, 34-year-old Wang Gang has never bought a house. Before the epidemic, he relied on the 500,000 to 600,000 yuan he had saved from doing foreign trade in the past few years. He took a fancy to a second-hand house in Jinan, paid a deposit, and planned to go through the formalities after the year.
All of this has been disrupted by the epidemic.
In late March 2020, Wang Gang’s factory resumed work. At that time, the epidemic had broken out abroad and there were no foreign trade orders at all. Domestic exhibitions and events that require non-woven bags have also been suspended. "There is a lot of pressure. If there are no orders, workers will be lost, and re-recruitment and training are all costly." Wang Gang recalled.
Workers are producing. Photo provided by interviewee
The main reason why Wang Gang and his partners decided to enter the mask market was that many of their peers had switched to producing masks and "I heard they made millions." They believe that the company has always been engaged in foreign trade, which is an advantage.
On April 7, the business license of Qufu Baoli Medical Technology Co., Ltd. was obtained. On April 10, four sets of second-hand disposable mask machines purchased through the WeChat group arrived and were debugged and production began. Because he has been doing foreign trade, Wang Gang knows the importance of quality. On April 15, the company obtained SGS China and EU CE certification.
As soon as it received the certification, the company received an order for 1.1 million disposable protective masks from Italy. At that time, meltblown cloth with a filtration level of 95% cost more than RMB 500,000 per ton. According to calculations, each mask cost RMB 9 cents, which could be sold for RMB 34 or RMB. Because it was an order from a foreign trade company, the other party took away more than half of the profit, and still earned two to three cents per mask.
"The other party wanted it very urgently, so we worked hard to produce it and completed the order in two days and two nights." Wang Gang recalled that in the end, the masks passed customs smoothly and passed the quality inspection. Wang Gang felt crazy after making two to three hundred thousand in two days.
“Looking at the mask machine was like seeing a ‘Golden Mountain’.” Wang Gang said that at that time, it felt like he was just waiting to count the money.
Because it is a second-hand mask machine and not produced by a major manufacturer, problems always occur, such as uneven sheeting and need to be debugged, which affects the production schedule. Wang Gang and his partners sold these four sets of mask machines without hesitation. I originally bought each set for 200,000 yuan, but sold it for 180,000 yuan. Then, purchase a new set of disposable mask machines from major manufacturers.
On April 20, the N95 mask machine purchased for 2 million yuan also arrived at the factory. This is 15 days after they paid the full amount.
Immediately afterwards, the company received an order of 300,000 pieces. The other party only wanted the "white pieces" of N95 masks (note: the mask slicing machine is relatively expensive, and the other company may not be willing to invest). In the past, it was processed twice and then exported to Singapore.
"We made 50 cents each, and 150,000 in one day and night.
"Wang Gang said, "Think about what it feels like."
The profits are amazing, and the investment is not low: plus the 400,000 yuan spent on transforming the sterile workshop, the investment has reached more than 3 million yuan.
Photo provided by the interviewee in Wang Gang’s company’s sterile workshop
At that time, the partner joked that he had two sons who wanted to marry, and Wang Gang also wanted to marry a wife. If this continued, one With a monthly income of three million, "it's enough money to marry five wives."
Wang Gang, who had already invested all his savings while housing prices were low, even started looking at houses again. As a small shareholder, he could get more than one million in two months. "I will buy a house directly with the full payment then." What they didn't expect was that the market for masks would increase rapidly within half a month. Turn to the next page.
"The first ones live in luxury houses, and the last ones go to the rooftops."
After the domestic epidemic stabilizes, many individuals and companies still have stocks, and the demand for masks is high.
After the second large order, although there are still domestic orders of a few hundred (mostly for household use) and 51,000 (for companies to resume work), Wang Gang's masks The factory has not received any major orders since the end of April.
At that time, the mask market was already saturated.
Wang Gang panicked and started posting on WeChat to mobilize all his relatives and friends to help sell masks. , but the effect was very little. “A friend asked the leader of a local epidemic prevention headquarters and found that they still had a lot of masks in stock. ”
Data from Tianyancha Professional Edition shows that based on industrial and commercial registration, from January 1 to May 31, 70,802 mask-related companies were newly registered in my country, an increase of 1,255.84% compared with the same period in 2019. %. Among them, there were 35,260 in April and began to decline in May to 10,283. In addition, according to CCTV reports, China exported 27.8 billion masks in March and April, which was approximately 3% of the total global mask production last year. times. On April 24, 1.06 billion were exported.
By Labor Day, Wang Gang completely lost confidence, “I really didn’t know what to do, so I played games every day to anesthetize myself at night. I kept beating until I was too tired to bear it and then I went to bed. The only time I go out is to buy cigarettes."
Not to mention that there are no orders, even if there are orders, it is impossible to recover the investment based on the subsequent mask profit margin. Seeing that his savings will be wasted, Wang Gang feels, I "went back to before liberation" and lived a failed life.
Many industry insiders said that during the severe epidemic period, it was not easy to enter the mask market due to road closures. "Mask production machine" is still hard to find. At its peak, N95 mask machines were sold for more than 2.3 million yuan, and disposable mask machines were sold for more than 1 million yuan. Full payment is required to order the machine, and delivery usually takes half a month or even a month. As a result, for investors who entered the mask market when the epidemic was initially stabilizing, it was considered early to start production in mid-to-late March. Moreover, mask machine factories did not come to install them at all at that time, and many mask machines were left alone because they were not properly debugged. There.
According to the observation and estimation of these industry insiders, 90% of the mask production line investors who entered the market after the epidemic stabilized were unable to recover their costs. “It is better not to use N95 mask machines, but to use N95 mask machines. Yes, losing millions is normal. ”
There is a saying in the industry: Those who come first live in luxury houses, and those who come later go to the rooftop.
In a mask town in China, a mask salesman driving a Maserati told The Paper , many people got into the market later and got into trouble. These were mostly relatives and friends who invested in a partnership and lost money, so conflicts were inevitable. “You only see the ones who are smiling, not the ones who are crying. ”
Still decided to keep the machine
After the May Day holiday, Wang Gang felt better and was willing to go out and do things after being enlightened by his friends.
Wang Gang listened. He said that some colleagues in Zhejiang started making masks when the domestic epidemic was initially stabilizing. "After a while, they immediately sold the machines." Nowadays, the price of disposable mask machines has dropped to 20,000 to 300,000 yuan, but there are still some. The price was unmarketable. After discussing with his partners, Wang Gang decided not to sell the machine. In May, a mask factory approached them and offered to put the mask machine in the factory and then share the profit based on the number of masks produced. < /p>
Wang Gang said that at present, the non-woven bag market is recovering, and they decided to focus on non-woven bags and make masks as a side business. The reason is that there are not many regular mask manufacturers around.
< p> Li Lei (pseudonym) encountered a similar situation as Wang Gang, but made different choices from Wang Gang.He is from an important mask town in China, and his brother-in-law's family owns a mask factory. When the domestic epidemic situation first stabilized, he spent more than 2 million to purchase a set of N95 mask machines. Compared with disposable protective masks, the profit of each N95 mask is much higher. However, the mask machine has been poorly debugged and cannot be put into production. Worried that the mask machine would become scrap metal, he sold the mask machine for 300,000 yuan.
Even so, Li Lei, who "emptied masks" in the early stage, said that he still made hundreds of thousands.
During the epidemic, people like Li Lei who sold mask machines, masks, and melt-blown fabrics were able to make a profit without losing money, and many of them made a fortune. However, the most profitable ones are those that originally produced masks and entered the market early in the epidemic.
An epidemic has left behind rumors such as "mask machines are like money printing machines" and "many millionaires have been created in cities with masks".
In this regard, these industry insiders mostly avoid talking about it. "Chinese people pay attention to not showing off their wealth. In addition, they are also worried about being scolded and making the country's wealth difficult."
Now, the melt-blown fabrics on the market that originally did not meet the mask production standards below 80% (filtration efficiency), Prices have plummeted from 4 to 50 million yuan per ton to 10,000 yuan per ton. The price of 95% melt-blown cloth has also dropped from a peak of 600,000 to 250,000 to 250,000, and the price of 99% melt-blown cloth has dropped from more than 700,000 to 300,000.
Wang Gang told The Paper that meltblown cloth had been difficult to buy before and he was worried about rising prices. When producing the first batch of Italian orders, the company scraped together and bought more than two tons, half of which was useless. According to the current price of masks, reproducing and selling them can only maintain capital. What's even more tragic is that there are no orders.
"We are extremely worried and are considering opening an online store to expand sales of masks and non-woven bags." Wang Gang said that now, the domestic mask market is saturated. However, countries with underdeveloped light industries still have a relatively large demand for masks. As long as the quality meets standards, they can still be exported. The ex-factory price of masks is still higher than before the epidemic. Compared with the profit of a few cents per mask before, the current profit is still considerable.
"Outside, we report good news but not bad news. When my parents asked, they all said it was okay." Wang Gang could only grit his teeth and hold on, "The only hope left is at the exit. No one knows what the future epidemic will be like. Let’s see what the situation is like as we go along.”