The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has led to the urgent need for personal protective equipment, including masks and medical supply products.
The businessman behind the Floating Factories project, Uğur Akkuş, is preparing to turn three large ships into personal protective equipment factories and to dock them at U.S. ports close to coronavirus epicenters.
Akkuş, who is chairman of the Global Mask Co., emphasized that his main goal was to serve humanity and that this initiative would be an exemplary business model around the world.
The businessman said that the vessels converted to factories with utmost hygienic standards will move from the Mediterranean and anchor in the ports of New York, Los Angeles and Miami in July.
“We will not only produce pre-ordered FDA-approved masks and clinical coats in these factories. In addition to production for sales, we will make products that we will donate to the cities we visit. We will donate up to 20% of sales to economically underprivileged groups such as Native Americans, Latinos and African Americans in the U.S. and international nonprofit organizations,” Akkuş said in a statement.
“With this floating factory model, the production will be completed while the ships are traveling toward their destination, and therefore the time spent in production and logistics will be considerably shortened,” he added.
“In an emergency situation, countries will no longer have to wait for personal protective equipment for weeks or months. The buyers will be able to quickly obtain high-quality products and as an added benefit a charitable contribution mechanism will exist within the product supply chain.” Akkuş underlined.
Saying that the Global Mask Company’s goal is to reach half a billion dollars, he added that over 10 million protective suits will be exported.
“Our company’s 2020 export target is $500 million. A minimum of 500 million face masks and 10 million protective suits will be exported to the countries which are listed as targeted markets. We have bought three ships for a total cost of $90 million, and we will definitely continue investing in this project,” Akkuş concluded.
According to the statement released by the company, there will be 100 high-tech mask production machines operated by 150 professional employees that will produce 10,000 masks per hour on each ship.
These versatile floating factories will move to the ports in England, South America and Africa after they complete their mission in the U.S.
