In today&#;s world, disposable gloves have become both increasingly scarce and expensive, making alternatives more necessary than ever.
With competitive price and timely delivery, titanfine sincerely hope to be your supplier and partner.
We are living in unpredictable times, so you may need new solutions to keep workers safe without disrupting your company&#;s bottom line. The price explosion in disposable gloves is a recent problem that could use some creative thinking.
Why Have Disposable Glove Prices Exploded?
The disposable glove market recently experienced what could be called a perfect storm of issues. Rubber trees are the source of materials that are used in disposable gloves, like latex and nitrile. These trees only grow in hot, tropical climates, so single-use latex and nitrile gloves are exported almost exclusively from the two countries with the majority of the rubber trade&#;Malaysia and China.
The sudden, extreme increase in disposable glove demand because of COVID-19 combined with high virus cases in China and Malaysia early in the pandemic initially caused shutdowns, then a slow return to production. As many countries are still struggling with the virus, these materials are less available than ever, causing prices to shoot up as much as 300 percent. In some cases, the prices have increased a whopping 1,200 percent. If buyers don&#;t increase their bids and pay the higher prices, materials for disposable PPE go to higher bidders. There have even been reports of cash buyers jumping ahead of the line to buy large amounts of stock so they can resell it at inflated prices.
While the answer in normal times is to simply jump to another supplier who can offer a better price, in this case, all disposable glove suppliers are in the same situation. Prices are in a constant state of flux as buyers are forced to pay market price when their products are shipped rather than upon order. So, if the price is higher at shipment than it was when they originally placed the order, the buyers have to absorb the additional cost. Unfortunately, this situation is expected to persist through .
Disposable Gloves that Won&#;t Break Your Budget
Fortunately, you do have options! To begin, review the disposable gloves and other items you&#;re used to buying. Many companies switched to using nitrile gloves when latex allergies became common. However, nitrile glove prices have been more volatile recently because of raw material shortages. This is the area in which we have seen price increases of 1,000 percent or even higher. A solution to this issue is to review your nitrile glove applications to see if you can substitute another type of glove without impacting your safety or your processes.
This article originally appeared in the January/February issue of Occupational Health & Safety.
In , hospitals were short on everything and willing to pay astronomical prices for PPE. But dramatic early-pandemic tales of cutthroat procurement for medical supplies are mostly behind us, with one outlier.
Despite an explosive surge in global demand that has seen 10.4 billion covid vaccine doses administered so far, the price of syringes have remained unchanged for more than a decade, hovering between 7 and 8 cents each, according to US Census Bureau data released last month.
AdvertisementSave for a brief spike in prices in January for N95 and KN95 masks at the height of the omicron wave, N95 mask prices have decreased almost 5-fold between and , from $1.52 to 32 cents per unit. Disposable masks have dropped from 14 cents a piece, to 4 cents.
Meanwhile, the annual average price of medical gloves imported into the US soared from 56 cents for a dozen pairs in (or under 5 cents for a single pair), to $1.77 in . The price increases, combined with higher demand, saw the value of rubber glove imports to the US in reach $7 billion in , up from $2.3 billion in .
By January , a survey by Premier, a US healthcare group procurement organization with a membership of more than 4,000 hospitals and health systems, found that procuring exam gloves was second only to staffing issues as the biggest challenge in caring for covid patients.
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An April Premier report noted that global demand exceeded production capacity by 215 billion units, with glove demand increasing 40% since covid vaccinations started. In the US alone, fully vaccinating the entire population creates demand for about 660 million gloves, according to a June analysis of glove prices by a researcher at the US International Trade Commission.
In addition to health workers, rubber gloves are being used by previously bare-handed grocery clerks, gig work shoppers, and delivery workers.
Most of the world&#;s rubber glove supply is produced in Southeast Asia, where raw materials for nitrile gloves and natural rubber are in close proximity. Top Glove, a Malaysia-based company, is the world&#;s largest producer of nitrile gloves, a synthetic rubber compound, and natural rubber latex gloves.
AdvertisementIn , as factories in the US and elsewhere turned to making N95, surgical, and cloth masks to fill the pandemic demand, access to raw materials for rubber gloves remained limited. There were shortages in the materials for nitrile gloves&#;butadiene and acrylonitrile&#; as well as the ceramic hands to mold them, making starting up new rubber glove factories to expand global production capacity difficult.
Then, in July , the US banned rubber glove imports from Top Glove due to reasonable though not conclusive evidence of forced labor&#;&#;debt bondage, excessive overtime, abusive working and living conditions, and retention of identity documents,&#; according to a statement by Customs and Border Patrol. In November , Top Glove was also ordered by the Malaysian government to shut down many of its factories for several weeks after a widespread covid outbreak among workers living in cramped conditions.
The import ban was only lifted in September . Top Glove, at its annual meeting last month, said that North America accounted for 15% of its sales volume, compared to 22% in on account of the ban.
As an article by Forbes points out, the increase in prices for acrylonitrile and butadiene, the chemicals used for nitrile rubber, doubled between March and December , while glove prices went up as much as tenfold in the first year of the pandemic, minting new glove tycoons in Malaysia and Thailand.
AdvertisementFrom June to August , Top Glove posted a 1,646% surge in profits, to over $300 million. In its financial year that ended in August , revenues hit an all-time high of $3.9 billion (16.4 billion Malaysian ringgit), a 126% increase from the previous year. The net profit from its financial year exceeded the company&#;s profits of the past 20 years combined, and allowed for a more than 400% increase in dividends to shareholders.
However, the boom times may already be fading. In December, the company noted that the price of raw materials for nitrile and latex gloves are falling, while competition from new players in China and elsewhere could also bring glove prices&#;and profits&#;down this year.
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