KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 28 (Bernama) -- Synthetic glove manufacturer Hartalega Holdings Bhd is in the midst of building Plant 5 which will house 10 new advanced high capacity production lines.

"In order to meet the expanding demand, we have doubled our focus to increase our productivity further," said managing director Kuan Kam Hon in a statement today.

The first two advanced high capacity production lines, due to be completed by March 2010, will increase its annual production capacity from 6.5 billion pieces to 7.0 billion pieces, he said.

The remaining eight advanced high capacity production lines of Plant 5 are scheduled to be completed by fiscal year 2011 which will further increase annual production capacity to nine billion pieces, Kuan said.

He said that Plant 5 will cater mainly to developed markets such as Europe.

Currently, the company produces gloves at a rate of about 32,000 pieces per hour.

"Moving forward, our protein-free and competitively priced nitrile gloves have certainly made it more affordable for the acute healthcare industry to continue switching from natural rubber to our synthetic nitrile gloves," Kuan said.

"This factor, along with glove consumption which remains high in the medical environment, bodes well for our group," he said.

Hartalega posted a higher pre-tax profit of RM47.477 million for its third quarter ended Dec 31, 2009, compared to RM25.279 million in the same quarter of 2008.

Its revenue rose to RM148.599 million from RM119.056 million previously.

For the nine-month period, earnings per share was 39.90 sen and net assets per share was 132 sen.


Source: http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/bnm/20100128/tbs-hartalega-plant-ceeeaba.html