GLOVE maker Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd is investing RM100 million to build three new plants to boost nitrile glove production capacity from the current 16 billion pieces to 22 billion pieces a year.
One plant will be on stream by December this year and the other two are expected to start up by April 2014, according to Kossan’s CEO and Managing Director Datuk Lim Kuang Sia. The three new plants will add up 17 lines more to the firm’s current 100 lines and will yield capacity of 6 billion pieces per year. Last year, nitrile gloves account for 42% of the total production and latex gloves take up 58%.
“Our lines are interchangeable (for the production of nitrile and latex gloves) and are within our existing factory compound (in Klang) so the facilities and infrastructure are there,” Lim said earlier in a press statement.
Running at nearly full capacity, the firm is still bent on increasing its output, now imminent with the recent acquisition of an industrial land in Selangor that will provide an additional 12-15 billion pieces/year output.
Aside from capacity expansion, the firm is considering automating its production lines, Lim said, likewise forecasting that the automation trend may lead the glove industry to streamline its manpower by cutting down the number of workers by 40% in the next two years.