Chinese automaker BYD donates 100,000 face masks to Hungary
Xinhua
2020/05/01

Chinese automaker BYD donated 100,000 face masks -- made by its transformed plant in China -- to Hungary on Thursday to help fight the novel coronavirus, the company said in a statement.

At a handover ceremony in Budapest, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto received 70,000 face masks from Chen Yongping, Managing Director of BYD Hungary.

The remaining 30,000 face masks will be delivered to the Municipality of Komarom in northwestern Hungary, where a BYD plant is located.

"We very much appreciate the donation from BYD. This is a significant contribution to our efforts in controlling the coronavirus outbreak in Hungary," said Szijjarto at an online meeting before the ceremony with Isbrand Ho, Managing Director of BYD (Europe).

The donation came after a previous one last week by BYD France to a number of French public transport operators and local communities, according to the statement.

"With our manufacturing facilities in Hungary and France, the donations reaffirm our relationship with our friends and colleagues in both countries, said Isbrand Ho.

"We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our partners right across Europe, and beyond, in the fight to bring the coronavirus outbreak under control and to continue in our quest to bring 100 percent emissions-free, pure electric public transport to towns and cities," he added.

BYD, like many companies in China, has transformed their businesses to cater to the rising demand for masks amid the coronavirus pandemic.

On Feb. 17, BYD's first batch of masks went offline in its plant in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. Each line can make 50,000 masks a day.

With the new production lines, BYD is able to make five million masks and 300,000 bottles of disinfectant on a daily basis, making the company one of the biggest mask manufacturers in the world.

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