Support for Former Steel Manufacturers

Coronavirus is never out of the headlines, with a global epidemic now worsening every day. At the very start of the humanitarian crisis, however, when only China was affected, here at Tungstite, we decided we had to reach out to our former steel manufacturer and do what we could to help.

Having heard about a shortage of face masks, and the plea of the Chinese foreign ministry for donations from abroad, we decided to donate 50,000 surgical masks to our former steel manufacturers at Wuhan Iron and Steel Group – a business based in Wuhan in Hubei.

In China, the wearing of a face mask is a cultural response to viruses, so our gift was greeted with huge amounts of gratitude.

The shortage of face masks in China is not surprising. There are 500,000 medical staff in the province of Hubei, who have to change their mask four times a day. Public transport staff and some workers in shops and public premises were also ordered to wear masks when the virus began to strike. Additionally, although half of the world’s production of masks takes place in China, the closure of many Chinese factories has exacerbated the problem.

By stepping up and making its donation, Tungstite hoped to encourage other businesses to do the same. It learned that tariffs and duties on imported medical supplies had been removed by the Chinese government, to encourage the world to respond to its plea for masks, so we wanted others to follow our lead.

Whilst we cannot predict how long we will be talking about coronavirus, we are happy to have done what we could and demonstrated our concern for our global contacts and former steel manufacturers, in their time of need.