Don't expect disinfectants in wipes or sprays to hit stores soon, experts warn

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The manufacturer of Lysol urges not to ingest disinfectants 2:25

(CNN) - If you want to buy disinfecting wipes, we wish you good luck finding them on store shelves.

Products that help prevent the spread of the coronavirus — including disinfectant wipes, cleaning sprays, and other items — disappeared from the counter weeks or months ago, as consumers prepared for the pandemic.

• READ: Accidental poisonings of children with disinfectants increase during the pandemic

And now it can take several more months for high-demand products, such as disinfectant wipes and sprays, to become readily available in stores again.

In March and April, sales of spray disinfectants increased 230.5%, and sales of multipurpose cleaning products 109.1% compared to the same period last year, according to research firm Nielsen.

Patrick Penfield, professor of supply chain management at Syracuse University, told CNN that he expects the country to restock its shelves with disinfection and cleaning products by the end of July, with the warning that cases of coronavirus decrease by summer.

The problem with disinfecting wipes is "long demand," he explained.

Meanwhile, Steve Tracey, executive president of the Supply Chain Research Center at Penn State University, told CNN that it is impossible to know when we might have the items back in store.

"It's kind of unpredictable," Tracey said in an interview with CNN. “It is not about whether there will be, it is when. It is very difficult to predict when, "he insisted

Tracey said she doesn't think demand for these products will decrease until there are treatments or a vaccine to protect people from covid-19.

"Even then, the demand for disinfection and sanitation, just because it's part of human nature to want to protect us, can remain high for a while," he added. "So the answer to the question is how fast can companies like Lysol and Clorox and the people who make hand sanitizers increase their production capabilities to meet that demand?"

• LOOK: Don't ingest or inject disinfectant, asks the FDA (after Trump suggested)

One problem affecting factories, Penfield said, is that producers cannot keep up with demand. In that sense, he added that a key issue is that many chemicals, which are basic ingredients for disinfectants and wipes, come from abroad, specifically from China.

When China was the first country affected by the coronavirus pandemic, many factories stopped receiving orders and "that caused a hole in the supply chain."

“One of the problems is that (the manufacturers) cannot get enough ingredients for the disinfectants, the wipes, and that has been their biggest obstacle. Most of those ingredients, the basic ingredients, actually come from abroad and specifically from China, "said Penfield. "So for them it is really difficult and they are making their factories run nonstop right now, and believe me when I say this: they would rather meet all the demand, but they just can't because they can't get all the ingredients to make the product."

Jake Dean, director of the Grainger Center for Supply Chain Management at the Wisconsin School of Business, told CNN that manufacturers are waiting to assess how long this need for disinfectant products lasts before making long-term changes to increase capacity. production.

"It could be a long time before we see the store shelves full of these items again," he said. In conclusion: increasing production capacity is costly, and manufacturers of these items may want to wait and continue to do what they can with their existing capacity while evaluating how permanent this change in demand will be, meaning that shelves could continue being empty for some time ”, he completed.

Companies don't say when products will be available again

Supply chain experts point out that the resupply of these products depends on the production of the companies, however the companies themselves are not revealing many details about how they handle the increase in production.

Simultaneously, although there was a shortage of paper products such as toilet paper and towels at the start of the pandemic, these items have begun to return to the shelves at normal levels, as manufacturers adjusted to increased demand.

• READ: Can Lysol or Clorox disinfectants kill the new coronavirus? The answer is… complicated

Reckitt Benckiser Group, maker of Lysol sanitizing wipes, said in a statement that it is experiencing "unprecedented and accelerated demand" for its products, but did not respond to CNN's request about when customers might see them on the shelves of retailers.

“Demand continues to be very high and products sell very quickly when there is a replenishment, so we recognize that it can be difficult to locate specific items that our consumers may be looking for. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience and understanding as we work with retailers to restock products as quickly as possible, "the company said in the statement.

CNN contacted multiple retail stores - including CVS, Target, Walmart and Costco - and received no response on the specific question about when customers will be able to purchase these products again. The retailers told CNN that they did not plan to answer that matter.

SC Johnson, maker of products like Windex and other cleaning supplies, told CNN in a statement that, given the need and strong demand, it continues to increase production and is “focused on increasing the capacity of many of our manufacturing locations. global by adding more shifts and / or creating new production lines ”.

However, the company was unable to provide a date for shelf replenishment across the country to normal levels.

For example, SC Johnson said in a statement that one of its factories in Chicago, which produces the Method and Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day cleaning and sanitizing items, had three shifts, five days a week. Now, to keep pace with demand amid the pandemic, they added a sixth day to production and hired 34 part-time, full-time employees.

Lysol disinfectant