How to Import masks?

Today,5 April, 2020. There is 1,200,000 Covid cases in the world, people have got harder with the global epidemic situation of coronavirus and the shortage of masks due to the epidemic of coronavirus.

Currently we received more than 200+ enquiry per day with the disposable masks and also the mask raw material,this is also nearly 200 times than the normal time, obviously now the masks have a huge demand. With this article, we hope to show some information like latest Chinese government’s latest regulations,the classification of common masks,how to control masks quality and logistics options for buying masks etc. Hope this article will give you some guides and and help, we hope the global coronavirus epidemic ends sooner.

Chinese government’s policies on importing masks from China

China goverment never forbid the masks exporting even the conoravirus start spread in China in the early of February, now in China this virus seems under control and the goverment is also encourage the exporting included the PPE goods.

Until end of March, the daily output of full-face masks has reached 180 million.Based on Source Nonwoven production capacity of one line 100,000 masks, there is thousand of firms are now producing masks.

Since the production capacity increasing and many masks have been exported, there is also many complaint from the international buyers(some is the quality problem, some is misunderstanding about classification of masks). From 1st April, Chinese Goverment have taken more strict with the mask exported. All company export the masks must have:

1: Business license (the business scope has relevant business content).

2: Enterprise production license (production enterprise).

3: Product inspection report (manufacturing company).

4: Medical device registration certificate (not required for non-medical purposes).

5: Product manual (provided with the product), label (provided with the product).

6: Product batch / number (outer packaging).

7: Product quality and safety book (provided with the product).

And when company export the medical mask they must have a statement as below as a record. On this way it will hit on the export of defective products to protect the importers.

Masks classification

Generally, masks have 2 types based on its application: Respirator Dust Mask (Civil Using) & Medical Mask (for hospital – Doctors,Nurses and patients).

There is also some classification based on the differnet standard. We have a last blog to show you about this information.(http://www.sourcenonwoven.com/choose-the-right-mask-in-covid-19/ ).

When you import the masks you need to know which grade you need because the medical masks will be almost double price than civil masks.

Control masks quality

Because of the huge demand and still the short supply, it because very risk to import the masks from China as you do not know if the quality is well and the company is reliable or not.

Source Nonwoven have the following tips for you:

1) Buy from a professional company: they must be in this industry for years, it can be medical, nonwoven, labor protection etc which is closed to relationship. Some chinese company just buy a mask making machine and start this month, it is easy to have some problem as they are too new to come into this industry. When you see our article you know that we are a good option.

2)Buy from your current supplier: now the Economic activity is nearly stopped which made most of business turn slow. When you have been imported from China and want to do the mask business, buy from your supplier is a good choose because they know China market, have good knowdelge & relationship and want to cooperate with old customers for long term, they will try their best to search good mask for their old customers.

3) When you have imported the mask from a supplier, here you still can test the quality by yourself. No matter 3PLY disposable mask or multi layers N95 mask, the Meltblown non woven cloth is their “heart”, this fabric depends the mask quality. The outer layer is a 25/30 spunbond non-woven fabric with a waterproof treatment, which is mainly used to isolate the droplets sprayed by the patient; the middle melt-blown layer is a specially-treated melt-blown non-woven fabric, which has good filtering and shielding properties, Thermal insulation and oil absorption, are important raw materials for the production of masks; the inner layer is also 20/25g soft spunbond non-woven fabric. N95 has more layers of spunbond or airthrought cotton etc and most important is that N95 uses a N95 2 layers of meltblown fabrics.

When you get the mask orders from the suppliers, just burn the middle layer of meltblown fabric, it Will only melt without catching fire(like right in the photo), or if other material it must be fired like the left material, then that is low quality fake masks.

logistics solutions for importing and shipping masks

Usually if your order quantity is less than 30K, we do suggest ship by Fedex/UPS/DHL etc express company, as now the air shipping is almost the same charges.

If your order is larger than 30K masks, you can also choose the sea shipping. Because currently global airlines have canceled a large number of flights to and from mainland China which made the time is uncertain, to ship by air takes 1-5 weeks based on different countries. You can consider your costs and the time scales.

Raw material for making masks by yourselves

Now many customers asked us if we can supply the meltblown fabrics with yards, they want to sew the mask for their friend and family. Our manager consider to help these customers and hope they can protect their loves and win the battle of conoravirus, we decided to take 100kgs for retailer. If you need, pls send us an email with title “need **Yards （**Meters）for making mask”(must 20*X meters or 21.9*X yards), we will send you the prices and payment. Send email to [email protected]

Usually the standard mask size is 17.5*9.5cm, The meltblown fabric width is 17.5cm, 21.9 yards can make 200 masks at least. (FYI).

Hope people get heathy and world get better soon! Thank you very much for your reading.