Key industries in China are switching up their business models, switching to make medical equipment to address the nationwide shortage in medical supplies to help in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak.

Lithium battery recycling company GEM Co. Ltd. announced that two of its subsidiaries have received production licences from local health commissions to produce liquid disinfectants. One order has come from the eastern province of Jiangsu and is valid for four years while the other is from Hubei province, the epicenter of the virus outbreak, valid for four months, according to an announcement on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Monday.

The subsidiaries will use the by-products of their battery production to make disinfectants and donate them to the cities where they are located, the announcement said.

The country’s National Health Commission said in its sixth version of diagnosis and testing guidelines that chemicals including ether, 70% of ethanol, peracetic acid or chlorinated disinfectant are effective in killing the virus.

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Contact reporter Lu Yutong (yutonglu@caixin.com)