Workers produce medical N95 masks at a mask production company in Southwest China's Chongqing, March 2, 2020. (Photo: Xinhua)

China's top state asset regulator has set up a team to lead relevant centrally administrated State-owned enterprises to build production lines and expand the capacity of meltblown nonwoven fabric to ensure sufficient market supply.

The move was taken to deal with the shortage of meltblown nonwoven fabric – an essential raw material for medical masks. It is also helpful to stabilize goods prices for epidemic prevention and control, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

Central SOEs, including Sinopec Group, China National Machinery Industry Corp, Aviation Industry Corporation of China, China North Industries Group Corp and China Electronics Corp, have all started to invest and produce machines of facial masks and protective clothing for medical use.

China Petrochemical Corp, one of the country's three biggest oil and gas companies, has reportedly responded promptly by turning itself into a major producer for meltblown nonwoven fabric.

In addition to running six production lines of face masks, the group will add 21 production lines within this month. It will be able to produce a total of 1.5 million face masks on a daily basis by the end of March.

Li Lingshen, president of China Nonwovens and Industrial Textiles Association, estimated that Chinese companies' daily production capacity of meltblown nonwoven fabric will reach 200 tons between the end of March and early April, therefore the nation is capable of producing between 200 million and 250 million face masks per day.