Melt-blown fabric is the core material used to make masks, and its raw material is polypropylene (PP). It is used as the filter layer in the middle of the medical mask. With the surging demand for face masks, petrochemical manufacturers in Northeast China's Liaoning Province are already doing their best to meet the demand for raw materials like polypropylene. 

Yet, there is another problem in hand - how to transport the urgently needed raw materials to the southern parts of China?

This week, the port of Dalian in China's northeast has come out with a solution by opening a new sea route for shipping these raw materials to southern parts of the country. 

From ships' entry and exit, maritime management, loading and unloading operations, everything is done in a timely fashion to ensure the swift departure of cargo ships.

On Wednesday, after "Jinshunhe," the container ship from Fujian Province, was loaded with 3,500 tons of polypropylene, it departed to southern China's Fujian. That amount of polypropylene is enough to produce 800 million face masks.