Screw-making companies in Jintang town, Dinghai district, Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, recently saw a huge boost in orders for barrel screws to produce melt-blown nonwoven, an important material for face masks, due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

"The screw didn't sell very well before, but orders began surging in March," said Xu Sulong, general manager of a local screw company, adding that clients from Yiwu in Zhejiang, Qingdao in Shandong, and a number of places in Jiangsu had been purchasing many such screws recently.

Xu expects the company's output in the first quarter of 2020 to increase 30 percent over the same period last year.

"We've been receiving around 60 orders per day recently and are delivering the products within one to two weeks after receiving payment," said Xu Weiwei, vice-general-manager of Zhejiang Huaye Plastics Machinery Co, a leading screw company in China with a history of over 30 years that makes up 12 percent of the domestic market share.

Jintang, located in the southwestern area of the Zhoushan Archipelago New Area, is a town dominated by the screw industry. According to official data, over 75 percent of screws in the country are produced there. 

It was designated as "China's screw capital" at the 2019 China Plastics Machinery Industry Development Summit Forum in Ningbo, Zhejiang province on Dec 12, 2019.