A few days ago we looked at the glove import statistics in the United States. You can review the article here. The most important information we derived from that data is summarized below:

- Rubber glove imports reached 110.4 billion pieces in 2020, up 19.7% from 2019.

- The value of these imports reached RM16.45 billion, up 77.5% from 2019.

- Malaysia was responsible for RM9.6 billion worth of glove imports in the US in 2020, up 63.2% (RM3.72 billion) from 2019.

The United States is by far the largest consumer of rubber gloves in the world - both for medical and for non-medical purposes. However, this also means that it is the most matured market with the largest per capita consumption of gloves, and therefore theoretically with the smallest growth potential. As we have discussed in the past, most organic growth moving forward will come from emerging markets, especially once the pandemic is brought under control in the developed countries, and growth from developed markets will come in the form of stockpiling and from non-medical industries (see here).

Now let's look at data from a few other major rubber glove markets - the UK, Japan, and Canada. According to Margma, in 2019 Japan was the third largest export market for Malaysian gloves, and the UK was the fourth largest market (source). Canada was not among the top 5 markets, but you will see below that this is likely to have changed. No 2020 import data is available yet for Germany (the third largest export market in 2019) or for the EU as a whole. Bear in mind that every bit of data comes with different caveats as different countries report such data in a non-uniform manner. Where necessary, I have included notes on important specifics of the data.

United Kingdom

The UK has a trade statistics data site, which is still in its beta version. You can review it here. Extracting data from it is not easy, and I had to receive guidance from the HM Revenue & Customs, the institution operating the site, before I was able to get the data I was looking for. The UK does not report on number of imported pieces of glove, but it reports on the value of the imports. Another problem with the data is that while outside of Europe surgical gloves are reported independently from other types of medical gloves, in Europe (including in the UK), the statistics for these two types of gloves are jumbled together.

From January to November 2020 (i.e. excluding December for which data is not available yet), the total imports of rubber gloves in the UK were valued at £785 million (RM4.4 billion). This is an increase of 68% from the 2019 figure of £467 million (RM2.62 billion). The bulk of these imports came in the last 3 months of the observed period - September, October, and November. In these 3 months alone, £462 million (RM2.59 billion) worth of imports of gloves, or amount equal to the entire 2019 value of imports, was observed.

Malaysia was responsible for 34.9% of the value of glove imports to the UK in 2020, equal to £274 million (RM1.53 billion). This figure is up 90.5% from the value of imports in 2019. However, China was the main rubber glove importer to the UK with 37.4% of the market, or £294 million (RM1.65 billion) in value. In third place came Singapore with 5.2% of the glove imports to the UK, equal to £40.6 million (RM227 million) in value. We know that almost all of the manufacturing by Singapore companies takes place in Malaysia, but the actual export destination in some cases is recorded as Singapore, depending on the routing of the goods.

The UK government provids weekly reports on PPE deliveries to healthcare facilities in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. You can find the data for England here, for Wales here, and for Northern Ireland here. This statistical data includes glove deliveries. However, it is unfortunately incomplete as it covers only medical gloves delivered to healthcare facilities, and it doesn't include Scotland. In this sense, we can only use the data to look into developing trends. We will look specifically into the statistics for England, because the numbers for Wales and Northern Ireland are very small and statistically insignificant.

In 2019, a total of 1.76 billion gloves have been distributed to health facilities in England. This makes 147 million gloves per month on average. In the first month of the pandemic - March 2020, 246 million gloves were distributed. This number rose unsteadily to a maximum of 390 million in July, and 387 million in September. However, for the last 3 months of the year alone (October, November, and December), a total of 1.85 billion gloves were distributed, or more than the ones distributed in the entire 2019. The highest number was observed in December when 834 million gloves were distributed. This period coincides with the advance of the UK variant of COVID-19 in the country. The total amount of gloves delivered between 25 February 2020 (the time we start getting weekly data from) to the end of 2020 is 4.18 billion - a 137% increase from 2019. In January 2021 - the last full month we have data for, 767 million pieces of gloves have been distributed to healthcare facilities in England. For the latest 4 months of the pandemic, an average of 655 million gloves have been delivered per month, an increase of 346% from the pre-COVID times.

Japan

Unlike the US, Japan does not divide rubber gloves into ones used for medical and for non-medical purposes in their trade reports. The glove import numbers are reported in pairs (and in kg), so to adjust the numbers, we have to multiply them by 2. You can find the official data here.

In 2020 the total number of imported rubber gloves in Japan reached 18.21 billion. This is a 19.53% increase from the 15.24 billion imported in 2019. However, as with the other countries, in terms of value the increase is much more significant. The total value of imports of gloves in 2020 was ¥79.63 billion (RM3.1 billion), an increase of 66.47% in comparison with the value for 2019 (¥47.84 billion, or RM1.86 billion).

Malaysia was the main importer of rubber gloves in Japan. 11.26 billion gloves came from our country, at a total value of ¥46.03 billion (RM1.8 billion). This represented an increase of 15% in terms of volume and 50.83% in value as compared to the 2019 figures. 57.8% of all rubber glove imports in Japan came from Malaysia.

A distant second was Thailand, importing 2.78 billion gloves in Japan, and controlling 15.5% of the total imports value. China came in third in terms of value of imports with 12.85% of the total. However, this was based on 1.44 billion imported gloves - fewer than Vietnam, which imported 1.74 billion gloves to Japan.

Canada

The most interesting and detailed data is available for Canada. First, the country reports trade data on the value of imports with the help of interactive tables, which you could explore here. 

In 2020, a total of CA$911 million (RM2.9 billion) worth of rubber gloves have been imported in Canada. This is an increase of 253% in comparison with the CA$258 million (RM821 million) imported in 2019. As with other countries, the value of the imports accelerated over the last few months of the year. From an average of CA$21.5 million per month in 2019, the imports jumped to an average of CA$155 million per month in the last 3 months of 2020.

Malaysia imported gloves worth CA$382 million (RM1.21 billion). This was an increase of 133% from the figures in 2019, and it represents 41.9% of the total value of imports of gloves to Canada. However, Malaysia was overtaken as the leader in imports to Canada by China. China imported gloves worth CA$444 million (RM1.41 billion), or 48.7% of the total value of imports to Canada. Below we will see what one of the reasons for this might be.

On its website, Public Services and Procurement Canada reports that it has made orders fo 3.55 billion gloves by February 2021, of which Canada has received 1.48 billion gloves so far (see here). Note that as with the UK figures reported above, this is only the amount of gloves procured by the government in order to help supply the healthcare facilities in the country. The government of Canada has signed contracts worth CA$526.7 million (RM1.67 billion) for the delivery of gloves (see here). When I first access the site in January, the figure was CA$383.7 million (RM1.22 billion), so it appears that the new contracts have been signed over the last 1 month. Canada gives detailed information on every contract, including the contractor's name and the exact contract sum. This gives us an opportunity to compare the contract values between January and February.

The biggest difference is a massive CA$156.4 million (RM497 million) contract with Supermax Healthcare Canada Ltd. With this additional contracts, the total value of contracted deliveries to the Canadian government by Supermax has become CA$222 million (RM706.8 million). At the same time, the contract value of the other major rubber glove delivery contract - the one with Sinopharm, has dropped from CA$244.7 million (RM778 million) to CA$228.6 million (RM727 million). Sinopharm recently entered into an agreement with Malaysia's Titijaya Land for the supply and export of rubber gloves, produced by Rubberex. Rubberex previously signed a collaboration agreement with Titijaya for the delivery of a maximum of 4.03 million nitrile gloves (source). Thus, part of these exports to Canada might come (or might already be coming) originally from Malaysia.

Summary

Based on this overview, here is how the situation with imports to each of the observed markets looks like for Malaysia's glovemakers:

*Note: the UK values exclude the month of December 2020 for which there is no released data yet.

The total value of imports of rubber gloves to the 4 countries reached RM25.04 billion in 2020. Of this, RM14.12 billion worth of gloves, or 56.4% of the whole, came directly from Malaysia. However, as mentioned above, parts of the imports recorded as coming from Singapore to the UK, and from China to Canada, might ultimately originate from Malaysia.

Important disclaimer: Any views expressed are for informational and discussion purposes only. None of this information is intended as, and must not be understood as, a source of advice. It is imperative that you always do your own research and that you make any decisions based on your personal situation and your own personal understanding.