(Yicai Global) May 12 -- Chinese new energy vehicle maker BYD’s face mask order with California is delayed not canceled, with no impact on the delivery of the protective disposable facial accessories, the company said yesterday in reply to media reports its exports to the US have run into difficulties, the Beijing News reported,.

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration announced on May 6 the N95 masks, part of the state’s nearly USD1 billion deal for 200 million protective masks with BYD, had bogged down in the federal certification process, and the company thus had to refund the Golden State USD247.5 million by the end of last week, half of its up-front payment.

Millions of its surgical masks have already arrived, but BYD missed an April 30 deadline spelled out in the contract for certification of the N95 masks by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, California added.

"In addition to our supply to the domestic face mask market, we struck a deal with SoftBank Group on April 11 to cooperate on face mask production and have orders from other US states and various other countries," BYD said, adding "Hence, the California mask order has had little impact on our operations. We are working overtime to make masks to meet various parties' demand."

BYD, which turned to mask making after the outbreak of Covid-19, has now morphed into the world’s largest producer of the prophylactic visors in the expectation that massive global demand will prop up its profits as China’s stalled auto market otherwise offers scant growth prospects.

The Shenzhen-based company had the capacity to turn out 5 million masks each day as of March 13, with daily capacity up to 20 million as of April 17.

BYD has secured permission to sell its masks in the US, according to a statement on the Food and Drug Administration’s website. It will also supply Japanese conglomerate Softbank Group with 300 million masks a month. One hundred million of these are N95 masks, with a filtration rate of 95 percent, while 200 million are plain surgical masks.

BYD, an abbreviation of Build Your Dreams, grew into one of the world’s biggest mobile phone battery makers and then began to branch out into vehicle production. By 2010 it was one of the largest automakers in China, with a special focus on NEVs. It is also a producer of battery-powered bicycles, buses, forklifts and solar panels.

Editor: Ben Armour