World Market Outlook for the Disposable Gloves and Materials Markets 2020-2025: The World Health Organization Estimates Manufacturing Should be Increased by 40% to Meet Demand

https://www.globenewswire.com/fr/news-release/2020/09/23/2098003/0/en/World-Market-Outlook-for-the-Disposable-Gloves-and-Materials-Markets-2020-2025-The-World-Health-Organisation-Estimates-Manufacturing-Should-be-Increased-by-40-to-Meet-Demand.html

The COVID-19 pandemic spreading across countries and regions has caused a huge impact on people’s lives. Starting as a health crisis, it also poses serious threats to the global economy. The outbreak of COVID-19 has led to a surge in demand for disposable gloves worldwide. The pandemic has spurred a rush for protective equipment including gloves, with stores running out of them. With the increased infrequent visits to hospitals and other medical organizations, the healthcare sector is witnessing higher usage of disposable gloves than ever in the past. The coronavirus has slowly spread from China to worldwide, with the U.S. and Europe being the hotspots.

There was a shortage in supply, as the demand surpassed the production for disposable gloves and hospitals were running out of gloves. As the pandemic began, many consumers panic ordered, leading to the deficit. Frontline doctors and nurses had to face shortages to an extent that they had to re-use disposable gloves, risking the lives of patients and themselves.

Surging demand, partially joined with panic buying, hoarding, and misuse of gloves amid the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted global supplies. The rise in gloves demand has depleted stockpiles, triggered significant price increases, and led to production backlogs of many months in fulfilling orders.

WHO (The World Health Organization) shipped millions of examination gloves to various countries. However, supplies are depleting rapidly owing to increasing COVID-19 cases. To meet rising global demand, the WHO estimates that the industry must increase manufacturing by 40% and urges governments to act quickly to boost supply. WHO suggests that governments should develop incentives for the industry to ramp up production of gloves.

Malaysia, which is the world’s largest glove manufacturer, reported a surge in orders from all over the world, especially from the U.S. and Europe. Many disposable manufacturers increased their production capacity, and few are in the process of expansions to cater to the increasing demand. From February 2020 to June 2020, manufacturers worked at full capacity but still were not able to meet the need.

Disposable gloves are used in varied applications, including medical, cleanrooms, food and beverage, and industrial and chemical. A cleanroom includes manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, integrated circuits, CRT, LCD, OLED, and micro-LED displays, among others. In these environments, extremely low levels of particulates must be maintained.