Indonesia's Rubber Gloves Products Beat China's

Monday, 09 April, 2007 | 16:11 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Indonesia's rubber gloves products on the world market have managed to beat China's products, which use synthetic raw materials.

Synthetic rubber gloves products are considered less safe compared to natural rubber gloves products.

Today, the global market share of natural rubber gloves is 90 percent, while synthetic rubber gloves only account for 10 percent.

“Rubber gloves are one of Indonesia's products that have very rarely beaten Chinese products,” said Henry Tong, Head of the ASEAN Association of Rubber Gloves Manufacturers, last week.

Research studies have shown that the failure rate of synthetic rubber gloves is higher than natural rubber gloves.

The last research that the Rego consultant agency conducted stated that the failure rate of synthetic rubber gloves was between 0 and 4 percent.

“This has triggered consumers to choose natural rubber gloves,” said Henry.

The use of natural rubber gloves in the world, said Henry, has increased rapidly over the past few years because of special regulations in the health sector.

Some countries have made it obligatory to use natural rubber gloves in the health sector.

“In addition, it has become a habit in developed countries for rubber gloves to be used in everyday life,” said Henry.

However, there is less demand for natural rubber gloves in Indonesia, he said, because no regulation has yet been issued regarding their use.

According to Henry, Indonesia was among the leaders of natural rubber gloves, in addition to Thailand and Malaysia.

Currently, there are 16 rubber gloves companies in North Sumatra and six companies in Java.

These include six existing Malaysian enterprises with a total investment of US$100 million.

Indonesia exports between 10 and 15 billion pairs of gloves each year, providing employment for between 10,000 and 15,000 workers.

YULIAWATI