Second of four parts
Pre-pandemic, China was a minor player in the nitrile disposable glove market. Post-pandemic, it has substantially grown its overall nitrile production capacity and is expected to grow it further.
In the single-use glove industry, factories—especially in Malaysia, the world’s No. 1 glove-producing nation—continue to have utilization challenges, with some operating at as low as 20% capacity, and others in the 40%-50% range.
If you work with heavy machinery or use tools all day on the job, there is a significant risk to your hands from sharp edges, abrasive surfaces, chemicals, and other potentially harmful objects or substances.
When it comes to hand protection for hazardous environments, you want Gloveworks Nitrile with Raised Diamond Texture (RDT) on your side. These gloves stand up to the rigors of tools and machinery while also delivering dexterity, durability, and—maybe best of all—comfort.
Have you ever had a situation where a customer needed a glove—and you couldn’t get the right size, or color, or mil thickness?
Maybe they were on backorder. Maybe something more complicated was involved, like labor issues at the factory or the port.
The disposable glove industry is not widely known for its dedication to customer service.
That is, of course, not a universal statement; many vendors have good, even great, relationships with customers. For the most part, though, the disposable glove industry is where one business sells a commodity to another: It’s purely transactional.
Historically, people who work on cars and trucks have not widely used disposable gloves. For generations of mechanics, hand protection simply was not a big concern.
Why? In many cases—at least until the last couple decades—they lacked the information they needed to make the right choice for safety. Heck, even today the industry is only 120 or so years old. The evolution to new ideas can be long and laborious.
Disposable gloves are essential for—among lots of other things—maintaining hygiene, protecting workers from potential hazards, and preventing the spread of infections. Without strict quality-control measures, even a tiny production slipup could cause an entire batch of gloves to go bad.
It’s likely both distributors and end users can relate to opening a case of new gloves, only to discover that they are all bricked together. Or they tear as soon as they’re pulled on. Or they have the distinctive odor of being well past their use date.
When you think of professions with high injury rates, you most likely turn to such jobs as commercial fishing, logging, or roofing. Janitorial work may not seem perilous—but the injuries jan/san crews suffer should not be taken lightly.
Especially troublesome are hand injuries, which can result in missed work, elevated worker’s comp premiums, and less quality control. A solution can be as simple as ensuring employees have the right glove for the job—something that AMMEX specializes in.
Most disposable glove factories prefer to run their production lines almost non-stop to make money, in a concept known as factory utilization. It is common that a factory needs a 50% utilization rate to break even.
Throughout 2023, factory utilization rates for most of the disposable glove industry have been well below 50% because of massive capacity added during the pandemic and high excess inventory amounts at the end-user level.
Costs of doing business in the disposable glove market seem to be leveling off after several years of big swings. United Parcel Service and the Teamsters reached a deal to avoid a strike by getting the raises the drivers wanted. Thus, higher labor costs will likely affect the price of most goods they transport.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association also forged their own deal after months of labor strife; you can expect that agreement to eventually factor into product costs as well.
If there was ever an industry that demanded making hand protection a priority, it is manufacturing.
From working with machinery to encountering chemicals and hazardous materials to protecting products from contamination, gloves factor into just about any scenario that involves making things. Many jobs require specialty protection like extra-thick neoprene, cut-proof, or “armored” and padded work gloves, but just about everyone needs some degree of hand safety.
