US mask makers claim to be going bankrupt
US face mask manufacturers have once more sound the alarm that they will soon go out of business without government support.
Chinese masks, which cost much less than American ones, are winning the US market and forcing US mask manufacturers to lay off more and more employees.
US mask makers say they will be out of business next year without support from the government.
“With the virus getting worse, and we’re not even into the cold months, we’re really worried that this industry won’t be here to help when it’s needed most,” said Brent Dillie, chairman of the American Mask Manufacturer's Association (AMMA).
US mask-makers say that despite the high demand in the market, their masks do not sell and have remained in their storehouses.
“The industry is in a situation where we are needed, there are shortages of masks, but we’re all laying off our employees and sitting on huge inventories of products that we can’t sell,” said Luis Arguello Jr., vice president of DemeTech.
Miami-based DemeTech had been the largest mask manufacturer in the United States before the government stopped buying its products last year.
Since then, DemeTech has laid off 1,500 of its employees in its mask division and built up a stockpile of nearly 200 million masks.
In the meantime, US mask makers have been lobbying to persuade the government to extend a lifeline to these companies and once more buy hundreds of millions of American-made masks.
Meanwhile, there has been a surge of the Delta variant of coronavirus which has prompted the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to reverse it wearing face masks guidance after a new study showed the Delta COVID-19 variant produced similar amounts of virus in both vaccinated and unvaccinated people who were infected by it, alike.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration vowed to buy 127 million new masks for the national stockpile, which had an inventory of 424 million N95 respirators as of May.
US mask makers want to see the government figure rise as COVID-19 cases go up.
In related news, the AMMA plans to take legal action against China at the World Trade Organization (WTO), claiming Beijing is subsidizing the cost of face masks in the country.
AMMA says Beijing is “freezing out foreign competitors and creating a dangerous reliance on its industry to supply the world with vital PPE (Personal Protective Equipment).”
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