CNN News: 因冠狀病毒 美國民眾開始搶購衛(wèi)生紙

As coronavirus spreads, people across the country are stocking up on essentials — and one essential in particular, toilet paper. It’s sold out in stores across the world and has become the ultimate symbol of panic-buying. There was even a toilet paper robbery in Hong Kong.

隨著冠狀病毒的蔓延，美國各地民眾開始囤積生活必需品，尤其是衛(wèi)生紙。其在世界各地的商店被搶購一空，成為恐慌性購物的終極象征。香港甚至發(fā)生了衛(wèi)生紙搶劫事件。

There are consumer fears of toilet paper running out grounded in reality? Not really. Let's start at the beginning. Toilet paper is made mostly from tree pulp sourced from the U.S. and Canada. The pulp is turned into large rolls of paper called parent rolls, which in turn are used to make a variety of paper products.

消費者擔心衛(wèi)生紙耗盡有事實依據(jù)嗎?并非如此。讓我們從頭來解釋。衛(wèi)生紙主要由產(chǎn)自美國和加拿大的樹漿制成。樹漿被制成大卷紙，這被稱為母卷，而母卷又被用來制造各種紙制品。

For paper manufacturers who run on fixed capacity, it's hard to increase production quickly. One thing they can do is to switch from making a less in demand product like paper towels to more toilet paper. But most people are not using toilet paper any more than normal. The average American uses between half a roll to just over one roll a week. Let's assume that demand normally remains constant throughout the year. That means people are stockpiling.

And when the panic-buying stops sales could fall as people go through their stashes. Many industries like electronics and pharmaceuticals have complicated global supply chains facing issues with materials, production and shipping because of the coronavirus. The toilet paper industry with its comparatively simple supply chain, should be able to weather the virus more than most.

對于以固定產(chǎn)能生產(chǎn)的造紙企業(yè)來說，很難迅速提高產(chǎn)量。他們可以做的一件事是，從生產(chǎn)需求較小的產(chǎn)品，比如擦手紙，轉(zhuǎn)向生產(chǎn)更多的衛(wèi)生紙。但大多數(shù)人使用衛(wèi)生紙的數(shù)量不超過正常水平。美國人平均每周使用半卷到剛過一卷的衛(wèi)生紙。假設(shè)全年需求通常保持不變。這就意味著人們正在積壓存貨。當人們停止恐慌性購物，開始使用存貨時，銷售量可能會下降。電子和制藥等許多擁有復(fù)雜全球供應(yīng)鏈的行業(yè)，因為冠狀病毒而在原材料、生產(chǎn)和運輸方面面臨問題。而供應(yīng)鏈相對簡單的衛(wèi)生紙行業(yè)，應(yīng)該比大多數(shù)行業(yè)更能抵抗病毒帶來的影響。