KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 2): Top Glove Corp Bhd said its annual rubber glove production capacity had reached 90 billion pieces as at October 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic led to robust demand for its products to curb the spread of the outbreak.

Top Glove said in its latest update on its website that its current glove production capacity involves 750 equivalent single former lines across 36 glove factories.

"30% of production capacity is allocated for spot orders,” Top Glove said.

On Oct 8, 2020, it was reported that Top Glove had earmarked RM10 billion for capital expenditure (capex) over the next five financial years, a move which will see the company raising its annual production capacity to surpass 100 billion pieces of gloves as early as the current financial year ending Aug 31, 2021 (FY21) — from 85.5 billion pieces as of September 2020.

Quoting notes in Top Glove’s latest investor presentation then, news reports indicated that the RM10 billion capex allocation for FY21 to FY25 will be invested in several key areas, including new capacities, enhancement of existing manufacturing facilities, Industry 4.0 initiatives, a gamma sterilisation plant, land bank for future expansion, IT (information technology) upgrades and workers’ facilities.

On Bursa Malaysia today, Top Glove’s share price had fallen 40 sen or 4.67% to RM8.17 as at the time of writing, giving it a market capitalisation of about RM66.91 billion.

The stock saw some 11 million shares traded.