Overseas orders for body bags soar

Global pandemic draws rising inquiries from hospitals, middlemen: firms

Chinese companies have seen rising demand for body bags from around the world, including the US and France, with inquiries and orders exceeding production capacity, as the relentless COVID-19 takes a rising toll the world over, two insiders told the Global Times.

While some of the inquiries and orders came directly from hospitals of foreign countries, many of them also came from overseas middlemen, who might be seeking to profit, according to the insiders.

A manager of Tianhongshouchuang Technology Co, a large body bag producer based in North China’s Hebei Province, told the Global Times on Thursday that in the past two weeks, he’s had many phone calls from abroad asking about orders and supplies.

“We have been receiving up to 200 phone calls a day in recent weeks inquiring body bags, while it used to be only a few calls before the outbreak,” said the manager, who asked to be referred to by his surname Li. Most of the calls are from the US, Li said.

“Some people calling from the US asking us to deliver 2 million body bags within 10 days,” Li said. “Our total capacity is 1,000 a day, so we can’t do this in such a short time, and we also have orders from others that we must fill.”

As employees are working overtime, the company has turned down some new big orders so that existing ones can be filled on time, Li said.

The rising orders come as the death toll from COVID-19 surges globally. As of Thursday, the coronavirus had killed more than 172,000 people worldwide, according to the latest data from the World Health Organization.

With the surging death toll, some areas face shortages of body bags. In New York City, morgue workers had to use sheets to carry the deceased because body bags ran out, the Mirror reported on Sunday.

Given the surging demand, some foreign clients have tried to persuade Chinese companies that usually make protective gowns to make body bags.

A business manager surnamed Liu at a manufacturing and trade company in Qingdao, East China’s Shandong Province, told the Global Times that the company has been making protective clothing for surgery, but it is opening production lines to make body bags after a medical organization in France with which it has long had cooperation made such a request.

“Since the materials for making protective clothing are similar to those used in body bags, we can add production lines rather quickly,” Liu said.

Liu’s company has been receiving overseas phone calls in the past 10 to 15 days asking about production capacity.