Members of the New York Army National Guard receive a fit test for their N95 protective masks at the ... [+]
Manufacturing conglomerate 3M said that it had shipped more than half-a-million N95 masks to New York and Seattle, two of the places hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis, and that it is ready to send additional shipments across the country.
In a note on LinkedIn, CEO Mike Roman said that the company, which is based in St. Paul, Minn., had cranked up its production of N95 masks to nearly 100 million per month globally, including more than 35 million per month in the United States. The company produces these masks domestically in its Aberdeen, S.D., plant.
“I want people to know we are doing all we can to meet the demands of this extraordinary time and get supplies from our plants to where they’re most needed as quickly as possible,” Roman wrote.
Of the domestically produced N95 masks, more than 90% are designated for healthcare workers, with the remainder slated for other critical industries, including energy, food and pharmaceuticals, according to the note.
A change signed into law on Wednesday allows U.S. manufacturers that produce N95 masks for industrial uses to sell them to hospitals without fear of liability. While both types of N95 masks filter at least 95% of airborne particles, they can vary in design and fit. Vice President Mike Pence said on Thursday that the legislation would permit 3M and Honeywell to sell tens of millions more masks to hospitals.
While 3M is currently operating at capacity, Roman wrote that the company had accelerated its investments in increasing capacity globally, and expected to be able to produce nearly 2 billion such masks annually, up from 1.1 billion today, within the next 12 months. “We are working with the U.S. and other governments, investigating alternate manufacturing scenarios, and exploring coalitions with other companies to increase capacity further,” he wrote.
3M, which had $32 billion in revenue last year, is one of the largest producers of the N95 masks, which have been in short supply at hospitals as the number of patients with COVID-19 has risen dramatically. The announcement that it would nearly double production of the N95 masks represents a marked increase from Friday, when it said that it expected to increase its global capacity by 30% over the next year.
Roman, a 30-year veteran of 3M, took over as CEO in July 2018.
