WAKEFIELD – In the first five months of 2020, no less than 70,802 new companies registered to make or trade in facemasks in China, and 7,296 new companies registered to make or trade in meltblown fabrics, according to a report in the South China Morning Post.
The figures are attributed to Tianyancha, a Beijing-based business data collection company.
South China Morning Post reporter Cissy Zhou details how just as quickly the bubble has burst, as many so-called ‘tide players’ – entrepreneurs quickly entering a business with little prior knowledge or experience – have faced obstacles including changing export rules, tighter licensing requirements and weakened demand.
Following criticism from foreign governments around the world in respect of low quality products, Beijing launched a crackdown on the export of the non-licensed supplies of facemasks in April.
Yangzhzong, a little-known city with a population of 340,000 in Jiangsu province, quickly became known as the ‘home of meltblown’ when almost 1,000 companies registered to make or trade in the fabric. In April the Yangzhzong authorities banned 867 of these companies.
The fascinating article can be read in full here.
