So far, the corona virus confirmed case number in the world has exceeded 100k. Started breaking out from China, the travel of this frightening virus has killed thousands of lives, and made the starting of 2020 a total disaster. Firstly discovered on 26th December, outbreak on January, people wasn’t paying much attention. Till Wuhan shut down the city on 23rdJanuary, people started to understand the severity of the event. Almost in a week, Chinese government took action to stop the public transportation, block the roads even in the remote area of China as it was the time people going back to their hometown for the spring festival vacation. That was one of the main reasons of rapid virus spreading back then.
I reached Inner Mongolia on 22ndJanuary, on my way there weren’t much people wearing masks, neither I did. From that day on, we kept receiving news from all the channels that pubic activities and transportation were gradually shutting down. I had to stay indoor for the whole week and decided to change my flight to train as the bus I had to transfer also stopped. After a week, on my way back home, I probably saw the least people in my life at the train station during spring festival and everyone was wearing mask.
We were supposed to start work on 1stFebruary, however, things were turning into another direction. Online office suddenly became a trend, people started to sell every possible products online. I kept receiving queries of bottles and sprayer pumps from customers, so did my colleagues. At that time, only a few cosmetic packaging factories were allowed to operate, almost all the suppliers we knew were running out of stock. Probably it was the first time I witnessed the craziness of this industry. Product price went drastically high and climbing day to day, just because everyone wanted stock products, and a good part of those who had the stock were keep bidding the price. That was also the time we witnessed humanity.
I’m not going to condemn the people who were bidding the price, but I do really appreciate the suppliers who sold the stock at original prices. Since more factories started production, the prices dropped over night and it’s quite stable right now. Due to the global virus outbreak, the demand of cosmetic packaging now is still very simple, and the situation would probably last for quite a long time. To be more precise, 500ml hand wash bottles, lotion pumps and sprayer pumps have the highest demand. As a cosmetic packaging practitioner, I see it as a good signal that people are actually being cautious about the virus. Infectiologist clearly stated that it is really important to stop virus spreading in the early beginning, quarantine infected people, washing hands more frequently than usual, using disinfectant properly, wearing masks are considered as the most effective way to control the further spreading.
Now in China, although most of the factories are trying to start operation, we still face difficulties to full production because of the workforce shortage, the total supply chain is not going very smooth as well. As a result, the prices will not be getting back to normal in the short run, but also will not be as high as a month ago. Even the situation is serious in some countries, we suggest you not to be panic, self quarantine and take preventive action could reduce the chance to get infected. For the buyers who are in need of bottles and pumps, the best way is to look for more suppliers and schedule for production at the same time. Monitoring supplier credibility, ensure the shipment packaging is the prior concern to cooperate with new suppliers right now. As a professional cosmetic packaging exporter for years, we suggest all the buyers to treat the event rationally, operate the business activity in premise of own safety and make the purchase plan in advance.