MORE than 90% of the three-ply face masks used by Malaysia’s hospitals and clinics are imported mainly from China due to the cheaper price. Malaysia also imports these three-ply masks from Taiwan, Korea, India and Thailand.Malaysia has four manufacturers of face masks. Similar to the surgical glove industry, due to its higher quality and price, minimal to zero support has been given by the government to the manufacturers to sustain their operations all this while. Their masks are mainly exported to high-income, developed countries with minimal sales to Malaysia’s private clinics.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Thailand, Taiwan, Korea and Indonesia have all imposed an export ban on their masks to reserve them for their own use. While China has denied banning the export of masks and raw materials, regular Malaysian importers were unable to get new supplies since the recent Chinese New Year holidays. The local demand in China in fact had already overwhelmed the production capacity of all mask manufacturers there.
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