By Austen Hufford
American manufacturers say it will be months before they meet
demand for high-quality masks, part of a broader breakdown in the
effort to supply enough protective gear and lifesaving equipment to
fight the coronavirus pandemic.
3M Co. and a half dozen smaller competitors are making about 50
million of N95 masks -- which block 95% of very small particles --
in the U.S. each month. That is far short of the 300 million N95
masks the Department of Health and Human Services estimated in
March that U.S. health-care workers would need monthly to fight a
pandemic. U.S. hospitals that previously purchased masks from
abroad have turned to overburdened domestic suppliers after many
countries blocked exports to fight the virus within their own
borders.
"The demand we have exceeds our production capacity," 3M Chief
Executive Mike Roman said in an interview.
3M has doubled mask production since January. President Trump on
Thursday invoked the Defense Production Act against 3M, which gives
the federal government more control over a company's operations. 3M
didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the
move.
Other companies said they are racing to add machines and hire
staff to make tens of millions more masks each month. The domestic
production boom is a reversal after three decades that
manufacturers spent moving production of masks and other medical
gear to China and elsewhere, amid the broader shift of industrial
capacity to lower-cost countries. Hospitals buyers supported a
strategy that kept down costs for critical equipment.
But the coronavirus pandemic has overwhelmed that scattered
supply chain. Hospitals and public officials are competing for all
the available N95 masks, as well as less-sophisticated surgical
masks and ventilators.
To fill that gap, car makers including Ford Motor Co. and
General Motors Co. are planning to build ventilators and clothing
makers are sewing surgical and cotton masks, which are less
protective than N95 masks. Public-health authorities in the U.S.
are reviewing whether to encourage people to wear such masks in
public to help contain the pandemic.
3M's N95 masks are considered the gold standard by medical
workers and public-health officials. The Minnesota-based company
developed the first modern disposable face masks in the 1960s, and
kept making millions of masks each month in the U.S. even after
competitors moved most of their output overseas.
Before the pandemic took hold this year, most of the 50 million
N95 masks that 3M made globally each month were used to protect
factory workers from metal shavings and other hazards, Mr. Roman
said. That level of production was enough to meet demand from both
medical and factory workers. Now, he said, 90% of the masks that 3M
sells are going to medical workers.
3M began ramping up mask production after the World Health
Organization on Jan. 11 reported the first deaths from Covid-19,
the disease caused by the coronavirus. By mid-March 3M had doubled
its output to nearly 100 million masks a month globally, and 35
million a month in the U.S., at plants in South Dakota and
Nebraska. the company also has said it would import 10 million
masks this month from its factory in China, which earlier this year
was restricted from sending goods abroad.
Mr. Roman said 3M wants to double its global mask production
over the next year. That plus more domestic mask production that
Honeywell International Inc. and other companies plan to add in the
months ahead would meet the domestic demand the pandemic has
created, officials and manufacturers said.
"The first step was ramping up our idle capacity. The second
step is expanding it," Mr. Roman said.
Smaller manufacturers Moldex-Metric Inc. and Prestige Ameritech
Ltd. make about 10 million N95 masks each month combined, according
to the companies. Their output plus 3M's mask production represents
the bulk of current U.S. capacity, according to industry leaders,
augmented by smaller quantities from companies including Alpha Pro
Tech Ltd. and Louis M. Gerson Co.
HHS has urged manufacturers for years to add domestic
mask-making capacity in case of an emergency. "Supplies will be
short during a pandemic," the federal agency said in a 2007
presentation to manufacturers reviewed by The Wall Street
Journal.
The agency in March ordered 600 million N95 masks from five
companies to distribute to hospitals and augment the national
medical-supply stockpile over the next 18 months. The purchase
includes orders for 190 million masks each from 3M and Honeywell
and 130 million from medical-supplies company Owens & Minor
Inc., the agency said in an email.
Honeywell, which primarily made masks outside the U.S. before
the pandemic, said it plans to hire 1,000 workers to make 20
million N95 masks a month by May at plants in Rhode Island and
Phoenix. 3M said it will be making 50 million masks a month in the
U.S. by June.
Moldex-Metric said it is making eight million N95 masks a month,
and Prestige Ameritech said it is making two million masks a month.
Dozens of smaller manufacturers are also buying equipment to start
making masks.
But many of their new machines won't be installed for months,
manufacturers said. Some mask components, including a filtering
material called polypropylene, are also in tight supply.
Total Petrochemicals USA, a division of France's Total SA, is a
major supplier of polypropylene to manufacturers including 3M,
according to a person familiar with 3M's supply chain. Total said
it has boosted global production of polypropylene to meet rising
demand.
"It has been exponential and we expect it to double again," said
Paul Colonna, Total's head of polymers in the Americas.
Strong Manufacturers, a medical-equipment distributor, recently
installed three mask-making machines at a factory in North
Carolina, but can't find enough raw materials to use them. The
machines need a hard-to-find shape of elastic band, said Charles
Fatora, the company's head of global procurement.
"I have a gun on the front line. I just need some ammo," he
said.
Medicom Group, a Montreal-based mask maker, said it is opening a
factory in Canada to make N95 and surgical masks after signing a
supply agreement with the Canadian government. The company wants a
similar commitment from officials in the U.S., where Medicom
operates a surgical-mask plant, to buy its masks even after the
pandemic ends.
"If we do not have a long-term agreement, how can we invest more
and more dollars into equipment that is going to sit and rot," said
Medicom Chief Executive Ronald Reuben.
Imports of N95 masks from China, the world's top producer of
medical gear, have resumed after a weekslong export stoppage as
officials diverted production to fight the outbreak in the country
where it began.
Lloyd Soong, chief executive of Singapore-based Pasture Pharma
Pte, which makes one million N95 masks a day in China and other
Asian countries, said raw material shortages have made it hard to
boost output. A chunk of his output is still being requisitioned by
government entities in China, leaving him with limited supply for
eager customers in the U.S.
"We used to ship containers to customers. Now we are shipping by
pallets, " he said.
Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 02, 2020 21:37 ET (01:37 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
TotalEnergies (EU:TTE)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
TotalEnergies (EU:TTE)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024