The coronavirus outbreak has spooked the world and created overwhelming demand for face masks and other pieces of protective equipment.

Producing about half of the world's masks before the epidemic, China had launched massive production expansion to secure supply given the explosive growth in demand. Official data shows that China's daily output of face masks reached 116 million units by the end of February, 12 times the figure at the start of the month.

The coronavirus, which emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019, has spread around the world, prompting governments to slash economic forecasts and gear up for major disruption.

As several countries report their first confirmed cases, the virus continued to spread in South Korea, Japan, Europe, Iran and the U.S. There are more new cases now appearing outside China than inside.

Apart from donating face masks among other medical supplies to affected countries including Iran, South Korea and Japan, China has encouraged producers to export protective suits to meet overseas demand, the country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Wednesday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday of a global shortage and price gouging for protective equipment and asked companies and governments to increase production by 40 percent as the death toll from the respiratory illness mounted.

It estimates healthcare workers each month will need 89 million face masks, 76 million gloves and 1.6 million pairs of goggles.

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China is set to donate 5,000 protection suits and 100,000 medical masks to Japan, the Chinese Embassy to Japan announced on its website on Sunday. China and Japan have also agreed to step up public health cooperation to contain the outbreak in late February.

Apart from donating 5,000 nucleic acid test kits and medical supplies including 250,000 medical masks to Iran, China has also sent a group of medical experts there, which is suffering the most serious outbreak in the Middle East.

Supply catching up with the demand

Despite the rapid increase in production capacity, experts warn about the subsistence mismatch between supply and demand.

"As more people return to work, the demand for face masks should reach two to three million per day, so there's still a huge gap between supply and demand," Dr. Liu Chunsheng, associate professor from the Central University of Finance and Economics told CGTN.

Liu predicts more supply shortages will appear as the epidemic goes global. China might gradually meet overseas demand for face masks as the epidemic in the country subside.

"China has not reached the point of meeting the overseas demand yet, as the country enters the final battle against the coronavirus. It has to put domestic demand first," Liu added.

Vlog: China's mask factories in high gear to meet demand

Tianjin Teda Filters Co., Ltd. produces the air filtration material for face masks. The company's director of research and development Yang Wenjuan said that the melt-blown mask filter is still in short supply. It has export plans in the future and seek to expand from producing mask filter materials when the epidemic subsides, she added.

China's effort in prompt up production

Face masks are held as the most essential tool to stop potential infection via droplets. Most face mask producers have canceled their holidays and worked at full capacity.

Measures were introduced to support technological upgrading in the sector, some firms have retooled their manufacturer lines for the volume production of the much-needed protective gear.

Guangzhou Xingshi Equipment Co., Ltd. converted one of its diapers and sanitary napkins manufacturer lines for fully-automated mask production. With a capacity of assembling 1,000 medical masks per minute, or 1.4 million per day running non-stop, the ultra-fast line is believed to be among the world's fastest, according to local authorities.

Video: Chinese manufacturers shift from diaper to mask-making machines

Zhong Tian Smart Equipment Co., Ltd, a company that manufactures cables and smart workshop equipment, designed fully-automated mask production line from scratch, and managed to get hold of more than 700 required components within a week. The company is in the process of assembling two types of upgraded production lines, among which, one has the capacity of producing more than 6,000 disposable flat mask per hour, another will make around 5,000 N95 masks per hour. The company has received 82 orders by Tuesday, including 10 from a company in Japan.