Hartalega Holdings Bhd, the world's largest synthetic glove manufacturer, has posted RM62.2 million pre-tax profit for its third quarter ended Dec 31, 2010, up 31 per cent from RM47.5 million in 2009.

Revenue grew by 33 per cent to RM542.4 million compared to RM409 million in 2009.

Managing Director Kuan Kam Hon said delivering consistent growth has always been an integral objective of ours as we strive to create value for our shareholders.

He said three more advanced high-capacity glove production lines have come onstream during the quarter under review to meet increasing demand for nitrile gloves.

The production lines brought the group's annual production capacity from 8.1 billion pieces of gloves previously to nine billion pieces currently.The remaining advanced high-capacity production line for our fifth plant is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of this financial year which will further boost our production capacity, he said in a statement.

Owing to escalating natural rubber prices and weakening of the US Dollar, the group saw stiff competition from natural rubber glove producers who were converting their capacity from rubber to nitrile.

Kam however was confident Hartalega's prospects remained strong and was less susceptible to the vagaries of the heightened competition as the group has the first mover advantage in the nitrile glove segment.

He said high natural rubber prices had opened up new opportunities in markets such as South America, the Middle East and China which were previously dominated by natural rubber gloves.

I believe our opportunities in these markets are very positive as we will continue to capture a larger market share through our value proposition, he added. - BERNAMA