KUALA LUMPUR—Rubber gloves manufacturer Top Glove is planning to invest $1.9 billion in expansion projects over the next six years as the COVID-19 pandemic drives demand.
Top Glove will make investments in new capacity, upgrading existing facilities, the construction of a gamma sterilization plant, land bank for future expansion, Industry 4.0 digitalization and improvements to workers' facilities, the company said in its annual financial report on Sept. 17.
The $1.9 billion investment figure is significantly higher than Top Glove's previously disclosed capital expenditures through 2026.
In June, the gloves maker said it had earmarked $729 million to build 450 new production lines by 2026, creating the capacity to manufacture 60 billion pieces of gloves over the six-year period.
With the most-recently announced capex, Top Glove expects to increase output by an additional 100 billion pieces of gloves per year, from the current capacity of 85.5 billion pieces per year.
Furthermore, Top Glove said it was preparing to bring on-stream its first production facility in Vietnam in October.
Based in Binh Duong, Factory F41 will have the initial capacity to produce 2.4 billion PVC gloves per year from 10 production lines.
In addition to the new capacity in Vietnam, Top Glove expects to complete ongoing upgrade projects at its Kluang and Kota Bharu facilities in Malaysia before the end of the year, raising the group's total output to 89.1 billion units a year by the end of 2020.
