Decoding Indian Mask Industry

Not long ago, the sight of a masked person around us was such an unusual and unconventional sight. In conditions like high pollution, hospital use or occupational needs, masks were seen as a norm. Masks were mostly doctors and health workers’ accessories then. Sanitizer was lesser-heard stuff to a commoner. Now back to the current scenario and masks are our new t-shirt or an accessory to adorn. Deodorants in the handbags have replaced the sanitizers.

India, from the state of importing masks and PPE Kit’s a year back to produce 1.5 crore masks per day- has indeed come a long way today.

When corona hit the Indian subcontinent, we initially planned to ward it off by staying indoors and waiting to pass it off as a seasonal disease. We had no vaccination then and a meagerly costing mask was a much in demand piece. When nothing was working, this was our only go-to strategy for survival. Even after the advent of high efficacy vaccines in the market today, masks are still the most preferred prescription in the advisory kit of medical experts.

All the research of the human race to the survival tactics led to the path of masking all-again! Almost a century later, humanity was again in a masked state.

After a long resistance, we, the Indians, also inhabited the masked state when we saw our own near and dear ones losing their lives to the virus. We made the course corrections and now we are all in a masked state of affairs.?

When the industry sensed the demand a year ago, a parallel industry started budding. Very soon, the mask industry assumed a huge size in just a year allowing the smaller and the bigger players to take part in masking the world from an invisible virus.?For a large section of society, mask production is now a regular livelihood option. People made fortunes out of this industry till it started saturating!

The Timeline of Mask Industry

Many of us were surprised when our grandparents told us the stories of masked civilization a century ago. So, masks are not something new. The human civilization has gone through such a phase many times to save itself from some deadliest infections. Let’s have a brief look at the timeline of masking humanity.

6th Century BC

Since the very early times, masks have been used by humanity in different settings and scenarios. As per some sources, humans used to mask themselves as early as the 6th century B.C. We could find the images of people with clothes on their mouths in Persian tombs.

13th Century

Interestingly, history showed us a masked culture in the 13th century- Yuan Dynasty in China.?In the famous record of The Travels of Marco Polo, it was documented that the servants serving the meals to Emperor were supposed to wear silk scarves to cover their mouths and noses.

1910-11

When Pneumonic Plague hit the Manchurian region of China and Wu Lien-Teh, a renowned Chinese doctor established that the infection is airborne and mask could help them to protect

1918-1920

When the Spanish flu hit the world in 1918, the world lost 40 million people. India was also grappled with the pandemic and so-called Bombay Fever had spread across the country. Masks were a dire necessity and by the 1920s, face masks were the norms in society, just like today.

1934

The influenza epidemic made the masks a societal courtesy so that everyone remains safe.

Post-World-War

Post-World-war, the world wore masks to prevent themselves from the huge pollution in the environment.

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Major Masks in the Market

After a year of Covid-19, we have all done our due diligence in knowing the major masks available in the market. If we sum them up all, we have majorly six kinds of masks in our daily lives

Surgical Masks- These masks are one time disposable, loose-fitting face that protects you from sprays, splashes, and large-particle droplets in the air. They are made with non-woven fabric- polypropylene. They have better microorganism filtration capacity but also have their own disadvantages.

The Respirator- These masks are used to prevent exposure to vapors, gases, and particulates. The N-Series Masks-helpful in blocking the airborne particles up to 99%

N95:?-up to 95%

N99: -up to 99%

N100: up to 99.7%

The R-Series Masks – They are single-shift masks and can be good for eight hours of use. They are resistant to oils and airborne particulates like oil-based pollutants.

The P-Series Masks- These masks are majorly for occupational use. They have a longer shelf life of up to 40 hours and are very helpful in preventing airborne particles and oil-based pollutants.?

The Cloth Masks are made of single or combined fabrics like silk, khadi, cotton, flannel, cotton, or even chiffon-based materials. They can be good only if they are made of more than two layers.

So, these are the major masks that we are all using in different conditions.

How did we reach the Self- Reliance stage?

Getting back to the factors that helped us gain self-reliance in masking our people from this deadly virus, how did we reach the surplus stage from the shortage stage where this industry grew from 2 million pieces per day to over 20 million mask building capacity?

Let’s look at what made it possible?

Medical Factors

To cope with the exponential rise in Covid Cases in the first and the second wave, the government ramped up the production of various masks and allowed inclusive industry participation.

As we know that the covid infection shows multiple symptoms, the surgical procedures and complications gave rise to the demand for higher masks for medical and non-medical populations. During such phases of high rising infections, the patients and healthcare professionals are very susceptible to hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). Thus, to protect both sections of society, the mask demand led to a huge rise.

On the government interventions, the global mask-producing players have contributed to the country’s mask-producing capacity like Honeywell International Inc. It increased its mask-producing capacity to 2 million masks in its Pune manufacturing unit to support the government initiative. Many more industries followed suit soon.

Go Local –

Under the government policy of Vocal for Local, the push to indigenous market players and products increased a lot. Players like Khadi India and other local industry was given huge preference in the mask manufacturing industry by state governments. The other local players participated in Go Local initiative with full enthusiasm. The local population found great livelihood and employment opportunities with the rise of local mask manufacturing units.

Profitability-

When almost every industry tanked in terms of growth- the masks and PPE Kits industry grew at a phenomenal rate and led many non-mask industry players to enter in it. The players like Arvind Ltd., Aditya Birla Fashion, Retail Limited, Page Industries- a licensee of Jockey also entered the industry. The players like Bata India transformed one of its plants into the mask industry to cope with the demand!

Fashion Statement-

Gone are the days when you just mixed and matched the clothes with accessories to make a fashion statement. Now mask is the newly entered accessory in the fashion industry. You would be delighted to know that the celebrated fashion designers, like Masaba Gupta and Ritu Kumar, are there to design your dream mask, topping them with gems and diamonds, costing more than Rs 5,00,000!?

The current state of the Indian Mask Industry

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The mask industry in India today is in a saturation state where the production lines of the Indian Mask Industry have choked due to oversupply and the government had to reopen the export lines to clear off the stock.

The Indian Mask Industry Today

The modern Indian generation knows the concept of masks only after the arrival of Covid-19, although it existed well before in earlier times. Mask has always been our hero in rescuing ourselves from the deadliest infections since the earliest times.

Like every industry, the Indian Mask Industry also witnessed different stages of evolution during Covid-19. It underwent a full cycle of ups and downs. When corona arrived, it began with shortage, peaked at the end of the first wave, and reached a saturation state in just one year.?

In January 2020, the demand for masks wasn’t so much and the government was exporting the medical masks to the world. Soon, the shortage peaked so much that the government had to ban the masks export by April 2020! The ratio of demand to supply was now in crores to lakhs.

Cut to Today- Let us talk in some numbers-

From less than 25 mask manufacturers before Covid to more than 100 mask manufacturing units today, India is now one of the leading mask manufacturers in the world. The much-needed N-95 masks saw a production surge of 0.5 million to 7 million pieces per day. The state is such that we have again begun exporting them and the domestic industry is saturated!

The production of N-95 masks has to be stopped recently and the exports were resumed to clear off the stocks.

All this has happened in just one year of a huge shortage of masks in the Indian subcontinent. So, how much is the surplus we have today?

The State of Surplus

A year later, the production lines of the Indian Mask Industry are choked due to oversupply.

As per the Government of India report, we have a production capacity of 1.5 billion three-layer masks, and today; we are running a surplus capacity of 532.03 million.

If we talk about the four-layered masks, the country has a manufacturing capacity of 59.4 million. Interestingly, we are in a state of 1.9 million surpluses four-layered masks now in spare. Most of us have switched to reusable or washable masks and we now have 5.05 million surplus capacity. N-95 status is also similar where we produce 31.2 million N95 masks and 1.05 million masks are in surplus capacity. So, in the current scenario, the industry is in a saturation state where the production had to be stopped and exports had to be resumed to bring back the industry on the production lines.

The Market Forecast

This doesn’t mean that we have reached a forever saturation stage. According to research, India’s surgical mask market is valued at $71.73 million in 2019 and is expected to reach $157.13 million by 2027. This implies a clear annual growth of a CAGR of 10.3% in seven years, which is huge! We just need to plan the production strategically to stay in vogue.

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The Global Scenario

At the global stage, the mask industry will see an annual growth rate (CAGR) of 53.0% from 2020 to 2027. The Asia Pacific region has emerged to be the largest market of disposable masks.

The major companies that are prominently involved in manufacturing world-class masks across the globe whose quality standards remain impeccable are -

·???????3M

·???????Honeywell

·???????SAS Safety Corp.

·???????KOWA

·???????Moldex

·???????Kimberly Clark

·???????Uvex

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What Lies Ahead?

The mask industry offers huge prospects of growth and challenges in emerging economies like India. It has given a huge employment kick to the local population in times of deep recession.

The manufacturers have significant growth opportunities along with some evident challenges as well.

The mask production industry remains susceptible to market factors to retain the quality levels and adapt to the raw material dynamics for manufacturing. The new entrants need to be fine-tuned with these challenges if they want to be in the profiteering stages.

The major players have learned their lessons and are now increasing the mask production capacity very intelligently after sensing the market demand. There will always be volatility in production, supply and demand.

The Final Words

Amidst all the challenges and opportunities, this is a new industry to watch out for.?The industry needs to grow so that the quality standards are maintained and there is no compromise in health standards due to the market factors. The industry has surely made appreciable growth and is touted to be one of the highest growing industries in the coming years. So, the procedures, quality standards and health guidelines must be in sync with WHO guidelines for public safety.

As long as the disease is here to stay, whether we like it or hate it, one fact remains intact – Stay Masked and Stay Safe!

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