Coronavirus fight creates ‘free-for-all’ to find masks

SHANGHAI — Milliondollar wire transfers to strangers. Rumors of hidden supplies in forgotten warehouses. Wheelerdealers trying to talk regulators and customs officials into letting that one precious shipment through.

Global desperation to protect front-line medical workers battling the coronavirus epidemic has spurred a mad international scramble for masks and other protective gear.

Governments, hospital chains, clinics and entrepreneurs are scouring the world for personal protective equipment they can buy or sell — and a newtype of trader has sprung up to make that happen.

The stakes are high, and so are the prices.

Wholesale costs for N95 respirators, a crucial type of mask for protecting medical workers, have quintupled. Trans-Pacific airf reight charges have tripled.

“It’s a global free-for-all, trying to get capacity,” said Eric Jantzen, vice president for North America at

Vertis Aviation, an aircraft and air cargo brokerage based in Zurich. “And the prices reflect that.”

The hurdles keep rising. On Tuesday, after complaints from Europe about shoddy Chinese masks and ineffective test kits, China’s Ministry of Commerce ordered manufacturers to provide further assurances that their products met standards.

China vacuumed up a big share of global supplies after the outbreak emerged in January. It imported 2 billion masks in a five-week period starting then, according to Chinese customs data, roughly equivalent to 2 months of global production. It also imported 400 million pieces of other protective gear, from medical goggles to biohazard coveralls.

Now, China has become a major part of the solution.

Already a giant in mask manufacturing, it has ramped up production to nearly 12 times its earlier level of 10 million a day. It was a huge mobilization effort that involved redesigning freight train routes and sending large numbers of workers across the country in sealed buses.

Even though many hospitals in the United States are desperate for masks, selling to them isn’t always easy.

Deals have stalled because hospitals, accustomed to paying for supplies after they reach their loading docks, have balked at the stiff terms now being demanded by factories, mask traders said.

They also fear fraud. Producers of N95 respirators and surgical masks now insist that orders come with a 50% down payment, with the rest of the money due before the masks ever leave the factory gate, said Michael Crotty, the founder and president of Golden Pacific Fashion & Design in Shanghai.

The company has switched from manufacturing curtains to placing orders for respirators and masks with its Chinese fabric suppliers.

Factories sometime fill orders out of sequence, moving the highest-paying customers to the front of the line, he added.

“It’s a seller’s market,” Crotty said. “You don’t see this very often.”