Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn Technology, best known as one of Apple’s chief suppliers, has joined the ranks of several non-medical manufacturers now making masks to cash in on the novel coronavirus epidemic spreading across the nation.
Foxconn will be making 2 million masks a day by the end of this month, it said on WeChat yesterday. It set up a production line at Longhua Industrial Park in Shenzhen and begun trial production on Feb. 5, the firm added, saying it is in the midst of applying for certification for its products and will supply them to staff and also sell them commercially once approved.
The company is leveraging its production management, market and technology strengths to build a complete supply chain from raw material procurement to final production, it said.
Several other companies have begun making medical masks as demand soars during the epidemic, including a subsidiary of China-US carmaker SAIC-GM, which plans to transform a factory in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Province that usually makes noise insulation material for vehicles. It expects the plant will be able to make 1.7 million masks a day when ready.
China is the world’s largest mask producer and has the ability to make more than 20 million a day. Daily output during the Chinese New Year holiday was 8 million a day and that has climbed to 10 million now some companies are beginning to return to work, according to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published Feb. 3.
Source: Yicai Global
