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.

随着冠状病毒的蔓延，美国各地民众开始囤积生活必需品，尤其是卫生纸。其在世界各地的商店被抢购一空，成为恐慌性购物的终极象征。香港甚至发生了卫生纸抢劫事件。

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.

消费者担心卫生纸耗尽有事实依据吗?并非如此。让我们从头来解释。卫生纸主要由产自美国和加拿大的树浆制成。树浆被制成大卷纸，这被称为母卷，而母卷又被用来制造各种纸制品。

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.

对于以固定产能生产的造纸企业来说，很难迅速提高产量。他们可以做的一件事是，从生产需求较小的产品，比如擦手纸，转向生产更多的卫生纸。但大多数人使用卫生纸的数量不超过正常水平。美国人平均每周使用半卷到刚过一卷的卫生纸。假设全年需求通常保持不变。这就意味着人们正在积压存货。当人们停止恐慌性购物，开始使用存货时，销售量可能会下降。电子和制药等许多拥有复杂全球供应链的行业，因为冠状病毒而在原材料、生产和运输方面面临问题。而供应链相对简单的卫生纸行业，应该比大多数行业更能抵抗病毒带来的影响。

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.

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.

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.