Each day, Jeremy Hedges strides the floor of his factory where more than 250 employees work from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. to churn out 200,000 plastic face shields.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, his company was a 10-person operation making robotics kits and other educational materials. Now, InkSmith has pivoted to manufacturing the protective devices and is scrambling to fill a growing backlog that includes a contract with the federal government for 10 million units. Two million more face shields are bound for health-care workers in Ontario.

Hedges91裸聊视频檚 new spin-off company Canadian Shield is among the many manufacturers ramping up PPE production at home rather than relying on sprawling global supply chains that have come up short in the crisis, part of a shift that could have lasting repercussions for domestic production and international trade.

Finding a 4,600-square-metre (50,000 sq. ft.) plant and hiring hundreds of staff were minor obstacles compared with finding the raw material required as global demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) soars along with tightened restrictions on moving goods from place to place. Supply shortages also mean huge price swings.

91裸聊视频淚 remember one week we saw the plastic price go up almost three times what it had originally cost us,91裸聊视频� Hedges says. 91裸聊视频淚t was like toilet paper: everyone went and bought it all up.91裸聊视频�

Prohibitively high prices from a Canadian elastics supplier had the Waterloo Region firm looking to U.S. manufacturers. But it also prompted Hedges to reconsider the procurement habits that squeezed him in the first place, and to take more control over the process by bringing production in-house.

91裸聊视频淲e91裸聊视频檙e bringing in the machines to start making the elastic ourselves in Waterloo,91裸聊视频� the CEO says. By mid-June, he hopes the shields91裸聊视频� headbands will be manufactured entirely at his plant.

Meanwhile, demand for disposable face masks continues to grow, with an estimated 3.3 billion units needed over the next 12 months, according to a report by Allam Advisory Group, an Ottawa-based global trade consultancy. The federal government has ordered 330 million surgical masks, but received barely 10 per cent so far, the report said.

The vast majority of the world91裸聊视频檚 PPE supply is produced in China and southeast Asia. Since the outbreak, Beijing has massively scaled up production but imposed increasingly stringent conditions around the certification and export of medical goods. The added paperwork and other measures have made it more complicated to quickly fill large orders. Dozens of countries have moved to restrict exports of face masks, gowns and other supplies critical for front-line workers in the fight against the virus, hoping to keep much-needed supplies within their own jurisdiction.

Guillaume Laverdure, president of Montreal area-based PPE supplier Medicom 91裸聊视频� contracted to deliver tens of millions of surgical masks to federal and provincial governments 91裸聊视频� says 91裸聊视频渁lmost all the key raw materials91裸聊视频� for its products are in short supply, from the filters in N95 masks to the polypropylene used in isolation gowns.

Lockdowns and logistics pose another challenge. Often Medicom can91裸聊视频檛 ship its own goods, produced at its factories in China, Taiwan, France and the U.S. 91裸聊视频淭aiwan is still on an export ban. Our production in France is still under requisition,91裸聊视频� he says. 91裸聊视频淲ith these limitations come skyrocketing prices.91裸聊视频�

Reports of bidding wars and exploitative commission fees abound in what Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has called the 91裸聊视频淲ild West91裸聊视频� of global PPE procurement. The problem is made all the more expensive by a dearth of passenger planes, which typically carry half the world91裸聊视频檚 air cargo but now remain largely grounded amid border shutdowns, tripling airfreight charges.

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Health-care workers across the country have warned of PPE shortages, with some Ontario hospitals imposing a limit of one or two surgical masks per shift and, at Toronto91裸聊视频檚 Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, resorting to modified full-face snorkels as a possible alternative to N95 respirators.

91裸聊视频淭here91裸聊视频檚 no more protective equipment anywhere. It91裸聊视频檚 getting desperate,91裸聊视频� says Francois-Xavier Robert, co-owner and chief operating officer at Quartz Co., which makes parkas.

91裸聊视频淲e bought one shipment of disposable masks (from China) in the beginning, and they91裸聊视频檙e still in transit, lost somewhere. It91裸聊视频檚 been a month. Normally it takes three days.91裸聊视频�

Robert91裸聊视频檚 Montreal-based company turned from sewing jackets to medical-grade face coverings and gowns over the past two months.

91裸聊视频淲e91裸聊视频檙e producing it at 9 a.m., packing it at noon and delivering it at 1 p.m. And at 2 p.m. it91裸聊视频檚 on a doctor91裸聊视频檚 back. That91裸聊视频檚 how bad the situation is right now.91裸聊视频�

The lack of fabric abroad has slowed down their manufacturing process, resulting in shortfalls or delays in Quartz91裸聊视频檚 hospital deliveries. 91裸聊视频淲e had to find local suppliers, and there91裸聊视频檚 not so many. There91裸聊视频檚 maybe five in Canada,91裸聊视频� Robert says.

The supply shortage extends to the world of molecular biology, where shipment of chemical reagents is 91裸聊视频渢aking twice as long as normal,91裸聊视频� says Mario Thomas, chief executive at Precision Biomonitoring.

The federal government asked the Guelph-based biotechnology company in March to develop a point-of-care test kit for COVID-19. But the reagents they need are produced by only a handful of providers, Thomas says. 91裸聊视频淭he demand has exploded, so they are scrambling.91裸聊视频�

To bypass that roadblock, Thomas has signed a contract with a pair of Ontario manufacturers, pulling his business from a Pennsylvania factory in a move that will allow him to boost production to 50,000 tests per week from 6,000. Not having to move goods across the border removes additional complications.

91裸聊视频淲e have been probably too reliant on foreign manufacturing,91裸聊视频� he says, pointing to gaps in the Canadian supply chain across a range of sectors. 91裸聊视频淭his crisis has shown us that we need to acquire or procure something, but it91裸聊视频檚 not available. So we need to make it here.91裸聊视频�

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Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press

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