Last of four parts
Since 2020, China has significantly increased its prominence in the disposable glove industry, emerging as a pivotal player in the global market. This rise is attributable to the needs generated by the pandemic, of course, but also to robust manufacturing capabilities, strategic investments, and evolving global trade dynamics. It has enabled China to showcase aggressive pricing and ramped-up capacity to compete head-on with SE Asia manufacturers.
Third of four parts
Spot rates for ocean freight from SE Asia to the U.S. have been rising recently and are expected to continue that trend until Chinese New Year in early 2025. Rates popped between 36%-41% month over month, and ocean carriers increased additional charges, known as general rate increases, by roughly 140%.
Second of four parts
Disposable glove factories, especially in Southeast Asia, continue to optimize their production lines. Some of the world’s largest makers of disposable gloves are working to return to profitability and expect it will take well into 2025 to do so.
The current state of the disposable glove market is defined by several factors that have become common over the last few years.
On the surface, the market appears to be in good shape. Acute glove shortages are behind us, pricing has returned to favorable levels, the supply chain has seen many broken links repaired, and there is no longer a sense of emergency weighing heavily on the entire glove trade.
Compliance is not a flashy topic in the realm of disposable gloves.
Despite its lofty position as one of four pillars in AMMEX’s core capabilities—along with fill rates, quality control, and customer service—it may not enjoy the buzz that surrounds the other three.
Janitorial & sanitation businesses need predictability and consistency. No one likes surprises, especially when it comes to their hand protection.
Those “bargain” disposable gloves that promised savings of a couple bucks per box? Maybe they hold up OK with light-duty tasks. But maybe they don’t—and workers ended up with glove after glove ripping, or leaking when working with cleaning solutions, or shredding when even the slightest resistance is met.
A question making the rounds in manufacturing circles is: What are you doing about sustainability?
It has extra resonance in the disposable glove industry. When it comes to sustainability, people have visions of gloves that, after use, disappear into the ether. (Cool idea, but still science fiction at this point.) There is a lot of chatter out there about gloves’ biodegradability or recyclability or compostability, but not nearly enough about how such efforts are essentially futile.
Color is important in any discussion of disposable gloves, even if there are no industry standards for different colors of gloves. What makes it important is what you and your company do with it: Creating a color-coding scheme can prove beneficial in a variety of ways, from hygiene to general organization.
Thirty-five years ago, when AMMEX was just getting started, industrial gloves came in essentially two variations: ivory or off-white for latex, and for vinyl and poly, opaque or transparent.
What do you think constitutes superior customer service?
The answers to that question are myriad, of course, and depend largely on the type of business one is referring to. What’s tops in jet engines is different from ubiquitous online retailers or answering the phone at Butterball Turkey’s Thanksgiving hotline.
Disposable gloves can seem pretty, well, disposable sometimes. You get 100 in a box, 1,000 in a case, and if one or two prove defective, hey, those are the breaks (or rips or punctures). Why would that be a big deal to anyone?
