The recent virus outbreak aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, linked to the Andes strain of hantavirus, triggered a strong rally in glove stocks. Top Glove Corporation Berhad surged 12.5% in a single day on Monday 11 May, while Hartalega Holdings Berhad rose 8.1% and Kossan Rubber Industries Berhad gained nearly 5%. The rally was largely sentiment-driven, sparked by heightened awareness of infection risks following the outbreak, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) classified as a Level 3 emergency response. Level 3 is the lowest of the CDC’s three activation tiers, and involves CDC experts in the disease leading the activation with their own staff to monitor the situation.
However, beneath this surge lies a more measured industry reality. Based on New Straits Times, average selling prices (ASPs) have indeed rebounded sharply to around US$29 per 1,000 pieces from roughly US$16 a year earlier, supported by improving demand conditions and tighter supply discipline. This provides short-term earnings tailwinds. Yet, the industry remains structurally constrained by persistent oversupply, limiting the sustainability of pricing gains. At the same time, rising raw material costs continue to pose margin risks, reinforcing a cautious outlook.
With increasing attention on Hantavirus, we are highlighting a handful of leading Asian manufacturerslisted on both Singapore and Malaysia stock exchange, that will set to gain traction if the situation worsens. Understanding their positioning also provides insight into how prepared the sector would be if a new infectious disease shock, such as a hypothetical hantavirus outbreak, were to emerge.
1) Hartalega (MYX:HARTA)
Hartalega Holdings Berhad represents the high-end, innovation-driven segment of the industry. It is a premium nitrile glove manufacturer with a strong emphasis on innovation and R&D, producing advanced products such as polymer-coated powder-free gloves, polychloroprene examination gloves, and proprietary biodegradable (BDG) gloves. Its alignment with medical use is exceptionally high, underscored by innovations like the Antimicrobial Glove (AMG), designed to reduce healthcare-associated infections, and the COATS glove for skin protection among healthcare professionals.
Following the COVID-19 boom and subsequent industry correction, Hartalega has seen market conditions gradually stabilise. Operationally, it reached an installed capacity of 37 billion gloves annually with 8 plants and 92 production lines, achieving around 80% utilisation in FY2025. Financially, it recorded RM2.6 billion in revenue, RM53 million in operating profit, and RM74 million in net profit, supported by a strong net cash position of RM919 million. Looking ahead, Hartalega is investing heavily in automation, AI-driven vision systems, and digital manufacturing, while expanding its healthcare ecosystem through a strategic stake in Medico Sdn Bhd to strengthen resilience in future pandemics.
2) Kossan Rubber Industries (MYX: KOSSAN)
Kossan Rubber Industries Bhd operates a diversified business model spanning Gloves, Technical Rubber Products, and Cleanroom solutions, allowing it to serve both healthcare and industrial markets. Its Gloves division is closely aligned with medical applications, producing surgical, examination, and procedure gloves, including differentiated products such as Low Derma gloves (designed to reduce allergic reactions) and fentanyl-resistant nitrile gloves with U.S. FDA clearance. In the post-pandemic environment, Kossan has focused on internal transformation to navigate oversupply and pricing pressure, while shifting towards higher-margin specialised products.
Operationally, it faced disruptions such as a gas supply interruption and currency headwinds, yet maintained resilience. In FY2025, group revenue declined 8.8% to RM1.75 billion, but profit before tax rose to RM171.8 million, driven by stronger performance in its Gloves division, which generated RM1.46 billion in revenue and saw profit increase 39.6% due to higher ASPs for specialised products. Strategically, Kossan is enhancing automation, optimizing energy usage, and prioritizing premium segments to improve margins and crisis resilience.
3) Top Glove Corporation (MYX: TOPGLOV)
Top Glove Corporation Bhd is the world’s largest glove manufacturer, built on a high-volume, cost-efficient model with an extensive and diversified product portfolio that includes latex, nitrile, and surgical gloves, as well as adjacent products such as dental dams, tourniquets, face masks, condoms, and exercise bands. Its alignment with medical use is strong, further reinforced by innovations such as chemotherapy-rated nitrile gloves and halogen-free cleanroom gloves.
After experiencing extreme volatility during and after COVID-19, Top Glove is now seeing a recovery, with demand stabilising and utilisation rates improving.
The company operates at an immense scale, with a production capacity of 95 billion gloves annually across 51 factories and 784 production lines, employing over 10,000 workers. In FY2025, it delivered a strong rebound with revenue rising 39% to RM3.49 billion and net profit surging 674% to RM123 million, supported by a 55% increase in sales volume and utilisation reaching 78%. Strategically, Top Glove is exceptionally well-positioned for future pandemics due to its scale, diversified manufacturing footprint across Southeast Asia, and continued push into key markets like the United States, alongside ongoing efficiency improvements.
4) Supermax Corp. (MYX: SUPERMX)
Supermax Corporation Berhad operates as a global OBM player, marketing gloves under proprietary brands such as SUPERMAX, AURELIA, and MAXTER, while also producing a wide range of nitrile and latex gloves and expanding into adjacent segments like contact lenses and PPE (e.g., face masks and surgical gowns).
Its business is strongly tied to global healthcare supply chains, ensuring consistent delivery of medical gloves to hospitals, laboratories, and healthcare professionals worldwide. Supermax experienced an exceptional demand surge during COVID-19, with record-high ASPs, but is now facing a sharp downturn driven by industry oversupply, low utilisation rates, and pricing pressure.
The company operates 10 manufacturing plants in Malaysia and exports to over 165 countries, while also ramping up its U.S. presence with a 2.4 billion capacity facility in Texas. In FY2025, it reported revenue of RM780 million and a pre-tax loss of RM198 million, reflecting cost pressures and intense competition. To prepare for future pandemics, Supermax is investing in overseas manufacturing, automation, and AI-driven production to enhance resilience and reduce reliance on labor.
5) Sri Trang Gloves (Thailand) (SGX: STG)
Sri Trang Gloves (Thailand) Public Company Limited is a leading healthcare glove manufacturer and a subsidiary of Sri Trang Agro-Industry, one of the world’s largest natural rubber producers. This parentage gives it a critical structural advantage: direct, stable access to upstream rubber supply spanning plantations, ribbed smoked sheets, and concentrated latex, insulating it from raw material supply shocks during future pandemics. Its medical alignment is core to its business, supplying healthcare gloves globally across examination and surgical segments.
Despite strong top-line performance, the company faced operational challenges in FY2025, including flooding disruptions in southern Thailand that damaged assets. Financially, it reported revenue of 113.47 billion Baht and gross profit of 7.08 billion Baht, but ultimately recorded a net loss of 1.41 billion Baht. In the post-COVID landscape, Sri Trang continues to navigate demand normalisation and industry oversupply, though its vertically integrated parentage remains a key strategic differentiator that pure-play glove manufacturers cannot easily replicate.
6) Riverstone Holdings (SGX: AP4)
Riverstone Holdings Limited operates on a foundation of deep technical expertise, particularly in particle and static control for the electronics industry, alongside premium healthcare glove solutions. Its product suite spans cleanroom gloves, healthcare gloves, finger cots, face masks, static shielding bags, packaging bags, and wipers, often delivered through customised, collaborative engineering solutions with clients.
The company remains closely aligned with medical and infection-control uses, positioning its gloves as essential protective barriers across healthcare, pharmaceutical, and food industries. Operationally, Riverstone has scaled to an annual capacity of 10.5 billion gloves following Phase 6 expansion, with nitrile gloves contributing 95.4% of revenue.
In FY2025, it reported revenue of RM995.3 million (–7.2% YoY) and net profit of RM207.8 million (–27.6%), impacted by currency fluctuations and softer regional demand. While its COVID-19 performance is not explicitly detailed, the firm emphasizes resilience across cycles and is investing in advanced, energy-efficient production lines and R&D into alternative polymer materials to strengthen long-term positioning.
7) UG Healthcare Corp. (SGX: 8K7)
UG Healthcare Corporation adopts an integrated Own Brand Manufacturing (OBM) model, combining upstream glove production with a global downstream distribution network. Its core offerings include the UNIGLOVES range of nitrile and latex disposable gloves, alongside reusable gloves, safety footwear, and ancillary healthcare products, with growing diversification into healthcare services such as retirement homes and diagnostic centres. The company is tightly aligned with infection control, wound care, and hygiene applications, supported by ISO 13485-certified manufacturing standards.
In the post-COVID environment, UG Healthcare faces industry consolidation, competitive pressures, and inflationary costs, but continues to scale strategically. It has an installed capacity of 4.6 billion gloves annually, currently producing 3.4 billion while deferring additional expansion due to market conditions. FY2025 saw revenue rise 25.1% to S$144.1 million and gross profit of S$34.7 million, though it recorded a net loss of S$4.1 million. Strategically, the firm is strengthening distribution agility globally while outsourcing lower-margin products and focusing internal capacity on premium segments.
Results Comparison
The glove sector’s demand environment remains challenging, with Top Glove the only manufacturer to post year-on-year revenue growth (+12%); the rest are mostly in decline, suggesting the industry is still working through post-pandemic normalization and competitive pressure from China.
On gross margins, Kossan’s 45.6% figure (gross profits not reported by the company and was estimated by S&P Global Market Intelligence) looks unusually high, so it may be best to ignore it. On a like-for-like basis, Riverstone leads with a healthy 29.1%.
Valuation-wise, Kossan and Riverstone screen as the cheapest on PE at roughly 19x, while the SGX-listed trio (Sri Trang, Riverstone, UG Healthcare) all offer FCF/EV yields above 9%, materially cheaper than their Bursa-listed peers on a cash-flow basis.
Sri Trang and Riverstone are also the only names yielding above 5% in dividends.
Pulling it all together, Riverstone stands out as the best quality play in the basket in terms of being debt-free and having double-digit FCF yield, strong dividend, healthy margins, and a reasonable PE.
Covid Boom Bust Cycle
During the COVID-19 period, glove manufacturers experienced a dramatic boom-bust cycle driven primarily by pricing dynamics. In the initial surge phase (Q1–Q3 2020), panic buying and global PPE shortages led to aggressive stockpiling, allowing manufacturers to implement frequent ASP hikes and driving unprecedented earnings growth, with glove stocks becoming market darlings.
This momentum carried into the peak phase (Q4 2020–Q2 2021), where companies reported record profits, although sentiment began to turn following vaccine announcements and ESG issues, including U.S. import bans on Top Glove and later Supermax due to labour concerns. From Q3 2021 onwards, the industry entered a sharp downturn as oversupply and customer destocking caused ASPs to collapse, significantly compressing margins and earnings.
In the post-COVID period (2024–2026), the industry has been gradually stabilising, with utilisation rates recovering from lows of 30–40% to around 60–70%, weaker entrants exiting the market, and major players maximising capacity to restore supply-demand balance and improve pricing discipline.
Their structural characteristics suggest that most businesses still face operational difficulties. We need to be prudent in trading events. Furthermore, it is also important to remain grounded in the economic reality of the industry. Being “well-positioned” for a pandemic does not automatically translate into sustained profitability. The COVID-19 experience demonstrated that while glove demand can surge dramatically, it can also lead to overcapacity and subsequent price collapses once the crisis subsides. Therefore, the true differentiator among these companies lies not just in their ability to scale during a crisis, but in how effectively they manage capacity, pricing discipline, and product differentiation across cycles.
In conclusion, these companies examined are fundamentally aligned with medical and infection-prevention use, though they approach the market through different strategic lenses such as innovation (Hartalega), diversification (Kossan), scale (Top Glove), branding and OBM (Supermax), vertical integration (Sri Trang Gloves), technical specialisation (Riverstone), and integrated distribution (UG Healthcare). Collectively, they form the backbone of the global glove supply chain across both the Malaysian and Singapore-listed markets. If a new infectious disease outbreak such as hantavirus were to trigger a surge in demand, these firms would be among the primary beneficiaries operationally.
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