US spending spree on health equipment sparks outrage
• The US is accused of paying above market price for vital supplies and stealing contracts from other countries
From Europe to South America, US allies are complaining about the superpower’s “Wild West” tactics in outbidding or blocking shipments to buyers who have already signed deals for vital medical supplies.
In France and Germany, senior officials said the US was paying far above the market price for medical-grade masks, on occasion winning contracts through higher bids even after European buyers believed a deal was done, and Brazil’s health minister reported a similar incident.
“Money is irrelevant. They pay any price because they are desperate,” said one high-level official in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing CDU/CSU group.
A German government source said: “Americans are on the move, carrying a lot of money.”
Since the virus was first recorded in China late in 2019, the pandemic has spread around the world. Governments in Europe, the Americas and elsewhere are desperately trying to build up supplies for medics, nursing home staff and the public. Now, with global cases surpassing 1-million and the outbreak exploding in the US, the competition for precious stocks is intensifying further.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday the US government was now recommending Americans wear cloth face coverings to stem the spread of the virus, but the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not recommend wearing medicalgrade masks.
He also said he was signing a directive to stop the export of N95 respirator masks, which provide essential protection for health-care workers, and other US medical equipment.
US-listed multinational 3M said on Friday the White House had ordered it to stop all shipments to Canada and Latin
America of respirators it manufactures in the US, despite what 3M called “significant humanitarian implications”.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said blocking the flow of equipment across the border would be a “mistake” that could backfire, noting that the country’s health-care professionals go to work in Detroit every day.
In another case, an order of 200,000 masks bound for Germany
was diverted to the US, Berlin secretary of the interior Andreas Geisel said, calling it an “act of modern piracy”.
In a statement on Friday, Geisel said the consignment had been “confiscated” in Bangkok and said: “Even in times of global crisis you shouldn’t use Wild West methods.”
However, on Saturday his office rowed back, saying it was still trying to clarify the circumstances of how the masks, which were ordered from a German wholesaler and not from US manufacturer 3M, had been diverted.
A spokesperson for 3M said the company had no evidence its products had been seized.
Asked by Reuters about the 200,000 masks at a daily briefing on Saturday, Trump said “there has been no act of piracy”.
A US department of homeland security official said US companies and the government had been paying above market price for much of the gear bought overseas.
The official, who requested anonymity to discuss the matter, said the US would not stop buying “until we have way too much” and could still be searching out protective gear abroad through August.
“We’ve gotten our hands on every bit of it that we can,” the official said.
Lea Crager, a spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is coordinating the search for medical supplies abroad, said disasters often led to price increases for certain goods.
“If it causes some sort of a supply chain disruption, you’re going to see costs rise for an essential commodity,” Crager said. “It just happens.”
In Brazil, health minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said this week that China had ditched some Brazilian equipment orders when the US government sent more than 20 cargo planes to the country to buy the same products.
“Our purchases, which we expected to complete in order to be able to supply, many were dropped,” said the minister in an interview on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Mandetta said Brazil had finally succeeded in placing a 1.2-billion reais order for equipment, though it will only be delivered in 30 days.
A second German source employed by a company now helping Merkel’s government to order masks said the last weekend of March had been a turning point, and drew a link with the US’s increased presence in the market.
Contracts no longer guaranteed delivery, the source said, adding: “Demand is much, much bigger than supply.”
In France, three regional leaders painted a similar picture. Jean Rottner said it was a constant fight to ensure mask orders arrived in his Grand Est region, where the outbreak first took hold before spreading west towards Paris.
He said consignments were changing hands at the last minute.
“On the [airport] tarmac, the Americans get out their cash and pay three or four times what we have offered,” Rottner told radio RTL France on Wednesday.
Rottner’s counterpart in the greater Paris region, Valerie Pecresse, said she had been beaten to an order by a country with deep pockets, though she did not name the US.
The cannabis bankruptcy filings are starting to roll in.
Already plagued by a tough regulatory environment, disappointing sales and capital markets that had closed to all but the strongest companies, the industry is now facing a pandemic-related collapse in stock markets and shrinking financing options.
Pot companies completed two capital raises worth just $5.6m the week ended March 27, according to data from Viridian Capital Advisors. That’s the lowest level of activity in 2020 and compares with 17 capital raises worth $169m for the same period in 2019.
The lack of financing is starting to take its toll on the weakest companies. Last week, CannTrust Holdings and James E Wagner Cultivation filed for bankruptcy protection in Canada. For CannTrust, it was the end of a nine-month-long saga that began when regulators discovered it grew pot in unlicensed areas and ultimately suspended its licence, a blow it was unable to recover from.
“The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have worsened what were already difficult circumstances,” the company said, “making it even more challenging for CannTrust to attract new financing or a strategic partner.”
There are signs of strain in relatively healthy companies.
Cronos Group, which is well capitalised thanks to a large investment by tobacco giant Altria Group, delayed the release of its fourth-quarter results and restated its financials for the previous three quarters because of issues with the way it reported certain bulk resin purchases.
The company’s weak revenue in the quarter — just $7.3m — prompted at least three analysts to downgrade the stock.
Hexo missed its quarterly filing deadline and, when it did report, announced C$266m of writedowns and impairment charges. Revised debt covenants require it to raise C$40m in equity by April 30, a “startling sum” that “could mean severe downward pressure” on the stock, says CIBC analyst John Zamparo.
If it can’t secure that financing, that “would put its going concern status at risk”, said BMO’s Tamy Chen.
Though cannabis sales jumped as self-isolation orders took effect in March, providing a rare respite for the struggling industry, there are already signs the initial spike is starting to wane.
After a notable increase in mid-March, “sales velocity meaningfully decelerated” on the Ontario Cannabis Store website last weekend, “suggesting that this recent surge may be transitory unless Covid-19 quarantine measures are meaningfully extended”, Chen said in a note.
“We believe the Covid-19 fallout presents incremental downside for industry sales over the balance of this year.”