A Glut of Chinese Masks Are Driving U.S. Companies Out of Business

Remember when N95s were in short supply? American companies stepped in to manufacture them. Now, they can’t compete.

Mask mandates have eased, a welcome milestone in the battle against Covid-19. But for the two dozen domestic companies that jumped into the mask-making business last year, the good news comes with a downside: a calamitous drop in sales. Some of the slackening demand is tied to the loosening of masking guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but industry experts say a bigger factor has been the return of inexpensive protective gear from China that began flooding the American market earlier this year. Industry executives and some members of Congress have accused China of dumping, noting that many imports are priced so low — sometimes a tenth of what American factories charge for comparable products — that there is little chance for domestic companies to survive.