KUALA LUMPUR – The country’s rubber glove industry aims to achieve RM38 billion in exports to the global market this year, higher than the RM35.3 billion recorded last year.
Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association (Margma) president Supramaniam Shanmugam said a total of 280 billion pieces gloves will be produced by Malaysia, representing 67% of the estimated global supply of 420 billion gloves for this year.
“Global demand is far higher than supply and we see this trend continuing (from last year), not only for 2021 but also going into 2022, with 13,318 gloves being used every single second.
“We have taken into consideration all of the scenarios (export competition and anticipation of falling average selling price) and are confident that this RM38 billion target will be achieved,” he told a virtual media briefing here today.
Supramaniam said Malaysia’s top export destinations for rubber gloves last year were the US with export value of RM11.89 billion, Germany (RM2.25 billion), the UK (RM2.13 billion), Japan (RM2.02 billion) and China (RM1.57 billion).
On the impact of global vaccine developments on rubber glove demand, he said an additional 18 billion gloves would be needed for the entire vaccination process.
He said the industry saw demand for rubber gloves growing between 8% and 10% annually pre-Covid, and the trajectory had substantially increased to between 20% and 25% during the pandemic.
Demand will likely grow between 12% and 15% annually post-Covid, he said.
“The new norm due to Covid-19 is expected to stay and sustain the current elevated demands,” he added.
According to Supramaniam, the growth drivers include the regulatory requirements, healthcare awareness, population growth, and aging population.
He said the industry is expected to see between RM2 billion and RM3 billion investment injections per annum, mainly in innovation, automation and aggressive research and development by manufacturers. – Bernama, March 15, 2021
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