While I can only speak for Europe, more particularly for Germany, I learned quite a lot about masks in the last couple if weeks when I tried to leverage my logistics contacts to get masks and stuff from China.
IMHO we see what a complete brake down of an established supply chain looks like. As end users in Germany are unable to source directly from Chinese suppliers, and these suppliers are unable to import, the high demand, combined with production shutdowns, resulted in a near global stock out.
While this is bad enough, the multi-tiered distribution chain (producer, importer, wholeseller, local distributor) is by definition not capable or fast enough to recover in any reasonable amount of time. And that is under ideal conditions, and not during a global shortage and run on the product in question.
One would be tempted to assume some central entity would be able to step in. But in Germany, that fell to the armed forces and other government entities. And those have not the slightest clue about international trade. So the insisted on suppliers to import. Remember why the supply chain is the way it is? So the only thing working is donations, because there logistics pros are running things.
It is not a question of availability of masks nor transportation capacity or lead times, just price.
Now it seems the import part is solved. I give the government 2 weeks tops to realize distribution is not that easy neither. Just having masks in some warehouse is only the first step of supplying the front line people.
Sounds duly familiar to what I read about Wuhan back in late January and February. Only donations work. Had massive trouble distributing things. Fortunately at least you don't have to deal with another distraction named "government redirected your donation shipment to Red Cross (ran by government in China) and they sat on their stockpile doing nothing or malicious".
IMHO we see what a complete brake down of an established supply chain looks like. As end users in Germany are unable to source directly from Chinese suppliers, and these suppliers are unable to import, the high demand, combined with production shutdowns, resulted in a near global stock out.
While this is bad enough, the multi-tiered distribution chain (producer, importer, wholeseller, local distributor) is by definition not capable or fast enough to recover in any reasonable amount of time. And that is under ideal conditions, and not during a global shortage and run on the product in question.
One would be tempted to assume some central entity would be able to step in. But in Germany, that fell to the armed forces and other government entities. And those have not the slightest clue about international trade. So the insisted on suppliers to import. Remember why the supply chain is the way it is? So the only thing working is donations, because there logistics pros are running things.
It is not a question of availability of masks nor transportation capacity or lead times, just price.
Now it seems the import part is solved. I give the government 2 weeks tops to realize distribution is not that easy neither. Just having masks in some warehouse is only the first step of supplying the front line people.