Top Glove Corporation Bhd, the world’s largest manufacturer of rubber gloves, may expand its business in Turkey.
According to founder Tan Sri Lim Wee Chai, the Malaysia-headquartered company has planned to establish a factory in Turkey, which imports 70% per cent of its gloves demand from Top Glove. The Turkey plant is expected to boost Top Glove’s presence in Europe.
Top Glove has operations across Malaysia, Thailand, China, the US and Europe; and exports to 195 countries to meet demand in both the healthcare and non-healthcare segments. As of December 2017, Top Glove already has 40 factories ( 35 in Malaysia, four in Thailand, and one in China) comprising 32 glove factories, two latex concentrate plants, two chemical factories, a glove former factory, a packaging factory, a dental dam factory, and a condom factory.
Meanwhile, in a press release the company issued in December, Top Glove said that its expansion plans are on track.
Expansion is ongoing for several existing facilities, namely, F32 phases 1 & 2 to commence operations by Q1 and Q2 2019, respectively; F33 and F5A to commence operations by Q4 2019; and F40 phases 1 & 2 to commence operations by Q4 2019 and Q1 2020, respectively.
Furthermore, its newest factory F8A in Thailand, is scheduled to be operational in Q2 2020 ; and its factory in Vietnam, F42, is expected to commence operations by Q3 2020.
The expansions are expected to increase the company’s total number of production lines by an additional 148 lines and production capacity by 14.8 billion gloves per annum. By December 2020, Top Glove is projected to have 796 production lines and a production capacity of 75.3 billion gloves per annum.