Manufacturers aim to meet demand for 'Made in the USA' nitrile gloves

Personal protective equipment shortages raged on at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic last year as demand for masks, gloves, gowns and more surged alongside efforts to slow the spread of the highly contagious virus.

While the White House claimed the "worst of the pandemic" was "winding down" in a June update from the Council of Economic Advisors, logistical nightmares within the supply chain continue with the mess that is labor shortages, hiked prices, delayed shipments, stranded containers and a rapid growth of consumer demand.

These "horrific challenges," as ChemSpec President and CEO David Moreland had put it at the International Elastomer Conference in Pittsburgh, are found in virtually every market, and companies don't see this supply snafu subsiding anytime soon.

And as U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have seized disposable gloves over forced labor allegations from companies like Top Glove in March and Supermax in October, it's no wonder the U.S. has boosted initiatives to onshore PPE production.

During a panel discussion hosted as part of Michelin's Movin'On panel, Francois-Philippe Champagne, Canada's minister of innovation science and industry, said countries are switching from supply chain efficiency mentality to supply chain "resiliency," noting microchips, batteries and biomanufacturing with a prioritization of PPE.

" 'Never again' is what we are saying as a government. 'Never again will we be in the same position,' " he had said of supply shortages across markets.

Demand for nitrile gloves is at an all-time high, and most medical gloves come from Southeast Asia, with Malaysia, Thailand and China leading in production.

At the recent International Latex Conference, the International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers reported demand for NBR latex is expected to double through 2026.

To prevent a repeat of the PPE shortages that occurred in 2020, rubber manufacturers, with and without federal government support, are increasing production of "Made in America" nitrile gloves as part of a larger push to reduce the country's dependency on foreign PPE.

In March, AirBoss of America Corp. received a tall order of nitrile gloves in the form of a $576 million contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which Chairman and CEO P. Gren Schoch told Rubber News was the largest single glove order the company had received to date.

In May, Fort Worth, Texas-based Rhino Health, a subsidiary of South Korean rubber company Jungwoo Rubber & Plastics, expanded nitrile glove production and added an additional manufacturing plant in Texas, which the company said will more than triple the nitrile glove production of the firm's existing New Mexico facility.

Also in May, the U.S. Department of Defense, in coordination with the Department of Health and Human Services, awarded Renco Corp. $13.1 million to increase production capacity of nitrile gloves at its Colebrook, N.H., facility, estimated to increase production by 45.8 million gloves per month by June 2022, according to the government agency.

The DOD modified this days later to a $35 million contract to also support the company's planned facility in Houston as part of a larger $200 million-plus investment in several glove manufacturing companies.

As part of this investment, the DOD also awarded $63.6 million to U.S. Medical Glove Co. L.L.C. for nitrile gloves, which was estimated to increase production by 2.31 billion gloves annually at its Fort Knox, Ky., location by May 2023, and $123.1 million to Blue Star NBR L.L.C. for increased nitrile butadiene rubber, with an estimated increase in output by 90,000 metric tons by August 2022.

And in June, the department awarded a nearly $97 million contract to La Verne, Calif., startup United Safety Technology Inc. with the goal to increase glove production by 216 million gloves per month by February 2023.

In July, Honeywell International Inc. made a deal with supply chain company Premier Inc., based in Charlotte, N.C., in which Honeywell was to produce 750 million nitrile exam gloves for the supply chain company to purchase and distribute to more than 4,100 hospitals and 200,000 other providers.

Several other companies committed to ramping up a domestic supply of nitrile gloves by the end of the summer.

Thai glove maker Sri Trang, less than two months after its June announcement that it intends to bring glove production to the U.S. with the establishment of a production base, signed a supply deal with Vizient Novaplus to maintain a certain level of onshore inventory.

The company had disclosed that its production base would sit on more than 100 acres and comprise a nitrile glove manufacturing facility, distribution center and warehouse, and an administrative complex. Sri Tang said it expected to reach a manufacturing capacity of 2.5 billion gloves annually in the first year of full production.

Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corp., based in West Columbia, S.C., invested about $100 million to launch a new business, Nephron Nitrile, to increase glove production with the construction of a new plant, slated for completion in early 2022. Nephron said it plans to produce 3 billion gloves annually.

Texas Medical Technology L.L.C. also launched its own subsidiary, iNitrile, in 2020, and this year the company expanded with the construction of a 230,000-sq.-ft., Houston-based glove plant and revolutionized putting out the gloves with a dispensing machine.

Most recently, Blue Star NBR committed to bringing 2,500 new jobs to Virginia with the construction of a $714 million multi-facility operation that includes NBR and nitrile glove production facilities.

The company broke ground on construction just last month at Progress Park in Wytheville, Va. The project will occupy more than 200 acres with the potential to triple in size. At full capacity, the facilities are expected to produce 60 billion nitrile gloves annually.