Global coronavirus vaccination programmes put Chinese syringe makers under tremendous pressure as orders mount
- Companies like Zhejiang KangKang and Shandong Qiaosen are working round the clock and trying to expand production
- Prices of syringes have more than tripled from 0.1 yuan (1.55 US cents) each before the outbreak to more than 0.3 yuan now
Chinese syringe makers are warning that they may only be able to fulfil some orders as late as June, as global coronavirus vaccination programmes put unprecedented levels of pressure on their factory lines and snarl the country’s own vaccine efforts.
Companies said that they were working around the clock, raising prices and trying to expand factory lines. China and India are the world’s biggest producers of syringes, industry executives said.
The company, a unit of Wanbangde Pharmaceutical Holding, was adding capacity to quadruple its production for certain types of syringes by May, but until then can only partly fulfil large orders, he said.
09:50
SCMP Explains: What's the difference between the major Covid-19 vaccines?
“We are very careful in taking in new orders now,” said an office manager surnamed Yang at another manufacturer, Shandong Qiaosen, a supplier to Becton Dickinson that is based in the northern Chinese city of Shandong. He declined to give his full name.
Yang said orders received by his factory this month must now wait until May or June to be fulfilled. More than 90 per cent of Qiaosen’s orders were from China before the pandemic but foreign orders are increasing, he added. Orders are filled on a first come, first served basis with no priority by country.