Latex future in gloves, condoms

Latex future in gloves, condoms

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Gloves, catheters and condoms will
continue consuming most of the latex produced by the world in the
future, but developing nations will overtake the West in becoming
the best markets for the products, an expert said yesterday.

Malaysia is expected to remain the largest consumer of latex
concentrates and the biggest exporter of latex-dipped products,
with Thailand and Indonesia slowly catching up, said Abu Talib
Bachik, an official of the Malaysian Rubber Research and
Development Board.

"Developing countries appear to be potential markets for an
increase in demand for latex products where currently the per
capita consumption of latex-disposable products is still low due
to low-income and health-care systems that are still developing
and unsophisticated," he said.

Addressing the Natural Rubber & Synthetic Rubber Markets '97
conference, Abu Talib said the United States was the largest
importer and consumer of rubber gloves in the world, followed by
the European Union and Malaysia.

He said the usage of gloves could increase in Europe but the
market was not as large as the United States, where about five to
six times as much medical gloves were used.

World consumption of latex stood at 698,000 tons in 1995, with
East Asia accounting for 54 percent of the volume.

Abu Talib said Malaysia has become one of the biggest
consumers of latex concentrates because of the rapid expansion of
its manufacturing-driven economy. The country is the largest
producer of rubber after Thailand and Indonesia.

A heavy relocation of labor-intensive industries to Malaysia,
China and India -- from Japan, Korea and Taiwan -- has also seen
a shift in consumption patterns within East Asia.

Abu Talib said figures available until 1995 showed that
Malaysia's consumption was around 210,000 tons while China's was
at 61,000 and India's at 57,000.

He said the future consumption of latex products may be
affected by competition from other material such as nitrile and
other synthetics.

But latex-derived gloves were expected to remain popular due
to "other better qualities inherent in them", said Abu Talib.

The conference was organized by the Singapore-based Center for
Management Technology.