1
Unavailable disinfectant
During this year’s “Double 12”, Ms. Wang, who was unfortunately infected with the new coronavirus, had anticipated the shortage of disinfection products. After purchasing in offline pharmacies to no avail, she immediately placed an order for two bottles of 2.5L alcohol disinfectant on the e-commerce platform. However, Ms. Wang did not receive the goods until she recovered. During the period of
, customer service responded with "high pressure on the warehouse" as a response to delayed shipments. Recently, when Ms. Wang was preparing to expedite the shipment again, she unexpectedly discovered that the link to the store where she placed the order had disappeared, and the blank page showed "Failed to obtain the store."
The panicked Ms. Wang began to look for other alternative products, but unexpectedly discovered a new world: the popularity of hypochlorous acid disinfectant has overtaken alcohol, and various disinfection sticks and sterilization cards are also dazzling. The introduction of "sterilization rate as high as 99%" makes people unable to resist the urge to place an order.
Three days ago, Ms. Wang bought the same alcohol product in another store, but it still has not been shipped. To be on the safe side, Ms. Wang placed an order for another 2L bottle of hypochlorous acid disinfectant on December 26. Whether she can get it successfully is still unknown.
The "gap" has gradually spread upstream along the industrial chain. A staff member of a company selling hypochlorous acid disinfectant said that the demand for hypochlorous acid has been rising in recent times, and the changes online have also been obvious. Before, he only received a few consultation calls a day, but now he receives dozens of calls a day.
Relevant personnel of a hypochlorous acid production company in Shandong also mentioned to a Beijing Business Daily reporter that the main problem now is the inability to produce it. The demand was too great a few days ago. Hypochlorous acid is needed all over the country. The production capacity has been relatively good these days and has slowly begun to increase. According to reports, his company's hypochlorous acid production capacity has increased to 40 tons per day.
Ms. Chen is also in the sales business of hypochlorous acid. On December 18, she updated a video of a fully automatic filling production line in her circle of friends. The video mentioned that in order to ensure customer demand during special periods, the factory will ensure 24 hours of non-stop operation. The matching copy shows that the order has been scheduled until next Wednesday, and reminds customers in need to place an order early.
A research report by Guosen Securities shows that the current market production capacity of disinfectant raw materials is sufficient, and the reason why it is "hard to find a bottle of disinfectant" on the market is not only the delayed resumption of work due to the epidemic, low operating rate, and delayed filling of supporting bottle filling production, but also another important bottleneck is the transportation of disinfectant.
2
Who has real skills?
Disinfection products that are currently attracting market attention mainly include alcohol, hypochlorous acid, disinfection cabinets, disinfection lamps, etc. Mentioning the difference between alcohol disinfection and hypochlorous acid disinfection, relevant personnel from the above-mentioned hypochlorous acid production company explained: "The disinfection ability of hypochlorous acid can 'kill' alcohol in seconds, which is 8-120 times the sterilization effect of alcohol. In terms of time, hypochlorous acid only takes 30 seconds to complete disinfection, while alcohol takes several minutes."
Disinfection cabinets usually use high-temperature disinfection, ozone disinfection , ultraviolet disinfection , etc. Most of the disinfection lamps also work on the principle of ultraviolet disinfection. Regarding the disinfection knife holder mentioned by Ms. Li, her store customer service said that it uses ultraviolet sterilization technology, and the new coronavirus is also within the scope of sterilization.
Liu Peng, a researcher at the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tsinghua University School of Medicine, said that household disinfection products can be mainly divided into two categories. One category is highly oxidizing chemical reagents including 75% alcohol, hypochlorous acid, and hydrogen peroxide. The other category is physical methods including ultraviolet sterilization, plasma sterilization, and filtration technologies.
In terms of chemical reagents, hypochlorous acid is relatively more irritating than alcohol and can easily affect the human respiratory . It is generally not recommended to be used on a large scale for a long time in family settings. Generally, after hypochlorous acid disinfection, the doors and windows of the house need to be closed tightly. After the disinfection is completed, ventilation is required to disperse the odor. Only after the chemical reagent is completely dispersed can people enter.Under normal circumstances, chemical reagent disinfection occurs more often in hospitals or public places with good ventilation.
Physical methods of disinfection, such as ultraviolet irradiation, may cause certain harm to the human body after long-term use, such as damaging the eyes, causing burns or even lesions on the skin. Therefore, ultraviolet disinfection generally appears in hospitals or professional laboratories. For home use, it is best to embed it into the corresponding machine. It is not recommended to install an ultraviolet lamp for irradiation.
Regarding the currently hot-selling disinfectant sticks and other products on the market, Liu Peng said that although he did not understand the specific principles, "I personally think it is unrealistic to carry a disinfectant stick with you to kill germs."
In his opinion, viruses spread through droplets or aerosol. Even if you wear a disinfectant stick, you cannot immediately create a barrier to quickly kill the viruses around you. If this effect can really be achieved, a very high concentration will be required, but in turn it may have corresponding effects on the human body. "For personal protection, the best way to protect yourself is to wear a mask."
3
Increased sales, increased production and cross-border
According to the "Diagnosis and Treatment Plan for Pneumonia Infected by Novel Coronavirus (Trial Ninth Edition)" issued by the National Health Commission, lipid solvents such as 75% ethanol , chlorine-containing disinfectants, peracetic acid and chloroform can effectively inactivate the virus. Not long ago, the National Health Commission issued the first edition of the Guidelines for Staying at Home for People Infected with the New Coronavirus. In terms of home disinfection, specific methods such as tableware disinfection and object surface disinfection are clearly mentioned.
Faced with the booming market demand, many companies have responded. Recently, Guangzhou Langqi stated that the 84 disinfectant produced by the company has a killing rate of bacteria and an inactivation rate of viruses as high as 99.99%, and is suitable for multi-purpose disinfection of public places, homes, and clothing.
Faced with questions from investors, one day later, Guangzhou Langqi responded again. The company's 84 disinfectant sales had a certain increase compared with the same period last year, but this type of product accounted for a low proportion of the company's operating income. Currently, the company is making every effort to meet order demands for related products. On December 26, Guangzhou Langqi hit the daily limit of , reporting at 4.27 yuan, with a total market value of 6.9 billion yuan.
In addition to Guangzhou Langqi, since December, many listed companies including Changhong Meiling , Xilong Science, Kefu Medical, etc. have disclosed the production and operation of disinfection cabinets, disinfection lamps, and disinfectant on interactive platforms.
cross-border has also become the choice of many companies. According to statistics from the Qianzhan Industry Research Institute, companies such as Zixin Pharmaceutical, Panlong Pharmaceutical, BYD, Red Sun, Renrui Biotechnology, Northeast Pharmaceutical, Taihe Technology, and Midland New Materials have previously announced that they will produce 84 disinfectant, 175% alcohol, and other disinfectant products. Is
a short-lived trend, or blue ocean in the long run? The development of the disinfection market is worth exploring. A research report from Guosen Securities shows that the disinfectant industry chain is simple, the production threshold is not high, and the production capacity of enterprises is very scattered. Domestic low-end disinfectant has overcapacity , and high-end disinfectant relies on imports to meet demand. After SARS, domestic disinfectants experienced a golden decade of development, and the disinfectant industry took off and expanded rapidly.
Zhongyan Puhua Research Institute also mentioned that the scale of the domestic disinfectant market is showing steady growth, with hundreds of billions of potential demand for disinfectant and antibacterial products every year. Medical disinfectant is the main market demand. As epidemic prevention and control is gradually relaxed in various places, the demand for household disinfection is rising, which will play a certain role in boosting the retail demand for the disinfectant industry. It is predicted that the market size of my country's disinfectant industry will be approximately 16.5 billion yuan in 2026.
Liu Peng believes that the disinfection equipment itself is needed. Although the epidemic prevention policy has been adjusted, there are still a large number of high-risk groups in need of key protection, and disinfection and protection in key places such as hospitals and nursing homes are still necessary.Moreover, the virus is constantly mutating. We cannot simply turn a blind eye to the virus. We must always tighten the string of epidemic prevention. The ideal state is still to avoid infection.
"Disinfection itself is a science. How to achieve timely and effective disinfection while ensuring the safety of the protected people may also become a key research or focus in the future." Liu Peng concluded.
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Beijing Business Daily reporter | Tao Feng Yang Yuehan
Picture source | E-commerce platform screenshot
