TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Surging demand is leading mask maker CSD to spend NT$120 million (US$4.09 million) on a new factory not far from its headquarters in Changhua City, reports said Thursday (Sept. 3).

The Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has led to worldwide demand for surgical masks to explode. On Friday (Sept. 4), investigators were questioning the manager of a company accused of importing masks from China and passing them off as Taiwanese products.

At present, CSD produced between 700,000 and 750,000 masks per day, but once its new factory in Huatan, Changhua County, came online, a gradual expansion to a total of 2 million masks per day would no longer be a problem, CNA reported.

Production was expected to start during the third quarter of 2021, with part of the masks slated for export, management said. Initially, surgical face masks were already a popular product inside Taiwan, with CSD as the leading brand.

However, as the coronavirus spread around the world and Taiwan became noted for its effective campaign to contain the virus, demand for CSD products surged, with foreign sellers eager to order the Taiwanese masks, the company said.

Masks in special colors, including orange, blue and red, were so popular that they had become scarce collectors’ items, vanishing off the shelves as soon as they appeared at pharmacies, reports said.