Nearly half of the medical gloves in circulation around the globe come from Malaysia. At the peak of the health crisis in 2021, their market share reached 49 percent of total global exports. This panic-driven demand became the height season for the rubber glove industry.
Dominance of rubber gloves on the export market
High global demand has made rubber gloves a staple in Malaysian rubber goods exports. The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) Report 2024 noted that this product clearly dominated all exports of latex-based products. At the onset of the pandemic surge in 2020, the country’s export value immediately skyrocketed to RM35.9 billion (about $8.6 billion).
Cash flows on this sector grew rapidly, setting latest historical records only one yr later. The export value of rubber gloves has increased dramatically, surpassing the mark of RM54.8 billion (about USD 13.2 billion) in 2021. However, this huge revenue cycle has fluctuated wildly, closely mirroring the erratic graph of the worldwide health crisis.
As of 2022, export value has dropped completely to RM19 billion (about USD 4.3 billion) as a consequence of a pointy decline in demand. It shrank further, reaching a low of RM11.8 billion (about US$2.6 billion) in 2023. The market showed only minor signs of recovery as the worth rose to RM15.5 billion (about US$3.4 billion) in early 2024.
Exponential production rate
Malaysia’s production scale has been pushed to the intense to maintain up with global market demand. Long before the pandemic broke out, local factory machines were already printing implausible numbers. In all of 2019 alone, the rubber glove industry was in a position to produce as many as 55.4 billion pairs of gloves in a single yr.
When demand exploded uncontrollably in 2020, production capability quickly expanded. In only one yr, factory operating rates increased by 85 percent, to 102.5 billion pairs of gloves. Machines needed to run non-stop to print these crucial personal protective equipment.
This production rate continued until the best peak in 2021. There was an extra 33.3% increase in production capability due to the aggressive expansion of production lines. In this one yr, Malaysian factories successfully released a complete of 136.7 billion pairs of gloves to the worldwide market.
Meeting high demands
The essential buyers of Malaysian gloves are mainly high-income countries. The United States and the European Union have all the time been the dominant importers in absorbing supply. These two giant regions purchased as much as 61.5 percent of Malaysia’s total medical glove exports.
This market dominance was clearly reflected in the worth of inbound transactions through the golden peak in 2021. The US alone contributed a implausible RM21.4 billion (roughly USD 5.16 billion) purchase transaction. This huge cargo delivery was immediately followed by gigantic orders from the European Union amounting to RM12.1 billion (roughly USD 2.9 billion).
Market conditions after the pandemic
The global demand cycle for rubber gloves slowed as the general public health emergency was officially lifted. The end of the worldwide health pandemic immediately created an oversupply effect as factories expanded too quickly. This situation has sharply reduced the selling price of rubber gloves within the international market.
The change in trend after the pandemic has caused a really serious decline within the revenue rate of the manufacturing industry. By the top of 2022, the entire export value of Malaysian rubber gloves had plummeted by 66.9%. In 2023, the export value continued to say no by 37.81%, and by the top of 2024 it increased by 31.51%.
