Semperit expands Malaysian gloves factory

Kamunting, Malaysia – Semperit Group has officially opened an expansion project at its P7 rubber gloves manufacturing plant in Kamunting.

The Austrian group started the €21-million project in autumn 2020 and has now added six additional dipping lines – known as P7+ – at the site, Semperit announced 30 April.

The new facility, with an output of 1.8 billion pieces per year, brings the total number of production lines at the site to 18, with a target capacity of 5.4 billion pieces per year.

The first 12 lines at “the most modern factory complex at the Kamunting site,” were built between 2015 and 2017.

According to Semperit, P7+ consists of semi-automatic lines and therefore brings down labour utilisation compared to other parts of the factory.

"The construction of P7+ serves to preserve value at our Malaysian Sempermed plant and represents the completion of the successful restructuring initiated in 2017,”said CEO Karl Haider.

The investment comes amid Semperit’s previously announced plans to divest its medical segment Sempermed, which manufactures rubber gloves.

In a 2 May statement to ERJ, the Austrian group said it is still pursuing the delayed decision, announced in January 2020, to focus on the industrial sector in the future.

“In order to find the optimal time for this, the executive board is closely monitoring the M&A market as well as market and price developments in the glove business,” the group added.