Vinda Household Paper (China) has become the first company in Asia to make a drawdown under Standard Chartered’s US$1 billion financing commitment to help companies tackling the Covid-19 pandemic.

Vinda’s first drawdown for US$23 million on a loan facility will help the company, which has 14 sites worldwide and in March opened a separate face mask production line, meet the demand for epidemic prevention products in China and other markets.

In the first month after the Covid-19 outbreak, Vinda added facilities in its manufacturing sites in Zhejiang and Guangdong to produce face masks with an output capacity of up to seven million pieces per month currently.

As a leading hygiene product company in Asia, Vinda is doing its utmost to meet the need for hygiene and epidemic prevention products, says Christoph Michalski, the chief executive officer of the Swedish majority-owned firm.

China has 50% market share of the global face mask production. Daily output has reached 100 million pieces as the Chinese government invited corporations to shift existing capacity to the production of face masks and other personal protection equipment. 

Standard Chartered has been part of a number of transactions this year that help the fight against Covid-19, and launched this additional US$1 billion programme on 30 March to provide financing on a non-profit basis to companies making products and services that help the front line fight the virus and its impacts.