Rubber Gloves Manufacturing Industry in China (October 2019)

65 pages. China has a large and growing rubber gloves industry and it has become one of the major exporters of the products. In 2018, China was the third largest exporter of rubber gloves in the world after Malaysia and Thailand with 8% share of global exports. The country's total exports of rubber gloves increased strongly from 4 billion pairs in 2007 to 12 billion pairs in 2016, a CAGR of 13%. Attractive domestic policies and manufacturing incentives introduced by the government could be one of the key factors that have contributed to the growth in China's production and exports of rubber gloves. The Chinese government is highly supportive in helping Chinese-based companies to uplift its competitive advantage in the manufacturing sector, either encouraging or directly funding investments in science and technology, technology transfer, sustainability, and infrastructure development. Innovation is at the core of China's current development plans. "Made in China 2025" and the 13th Five Year Plan (2016-2020) set out to steer the economy away from mass manufacturing and unsustainable industries through technologically driven growth. Since the campaign was launched in 2015, China has been strengthening its tax incentive programs, financial incentives and policies to encourage the development of new knowledge, products, and processes among domestic and foreign enterprises alike. These incentives offer an opportunity for innovation-driven foreign and local companies to generate savings and value. Natural rubber latex has been the main material for rubber gloves. However, in recent years, there has been rising investments into nitrile glove production as China's production cost for nitrile examination gloves is catching up with Malaysia. The growing preference towards nitrile gloves in developed markets have also contributed towards the uptake of this material. This report examines the factors that contributed to the growth in production and exports of rubber gloves from China as well as to forecast future growth in production of rubber gloves in the country. This report aims to provide industry stakeholders with information on the developments of the rubber gloves industry in China.