Ansell ships first rubber gloves from $80m plant in India

Richmond, Australia – Ansell Ltd has started the first shipment of surgical rubber gloves from its greenfield production facility in Tamil Nadu, southern India.

The $80 million (€75 million) facility, said Ansell in a 1 Dec statement, became operational in the summer to supply to emerging markets.

Part of the company’s ‘multi-sourcing strategy’, the Ansell Kovai project primarily focuses on manufacturing surgical and life sciences products.

The facility, however, is designed with “significant future expansion capability” to accommodate other products, such as examination glove lines, Ansell added.

Scheduled to be completed in 2024, the facility will occupy a 70,734 square-metre area and includes a manufacturing plant, compounding facility, dipping hall, post-processing building, warehouse and packaging facility.

Ansell said the new plant will set a new benchmark for its sustainable manufacturing, and “mark a glove-industry milestone” by operating with zero liquid discharge.

This, it said, means that all wastewater is fully recycled and re-used in production.

Once fully operational, Kovai will employ 1,800 people, mostly from local workforces.