TOP Glove Corporation Bhd assured customers today that its products are not contaminated following the discovery of a Covid-19 cluster linked to its premises, adding that no orders had been cancelled so far.

Executive chairman Lim Wee Chai said the warm environment in the factory was not conducive to the survival of the coronavirus.

“(There is) No contamination because the factory environment is quite warm… between 30-40 degrees Celsius,” he said.

Lim said the gloves are packed by workers with full personal protective equipment, who have no direct contact with the product.

“Our production line is fully automated,” Lim said.

The gloves are shipped in containers with a temperature above 40C. They take about a month to arrive in Europe.

Managing director Lee Kim Meow said so far there were no cancellation of orders as the customers had faith in the company.

Top Glove is the world’s largest producer of rubber gloves with more than a quarter of the global market share.

The Teratai cluster, which has logged more than 4,000 cases, is linked to its premises in Klang, Selangor.

On the detention order issued by the US Customs and Border Protection on Top Glove products over suspicions they were produced by forced labour,  Lee said the company had spoken to theAmerican authorities.

“We have communicated with them and they know we’re going through a rough patch,” he said.

Two Top Glove subsidiaries were slapped with the order and their products barred from the US in July.

The US authority did not explain why the two companies – which account for 12.5% of the group’s total sales – were blacklisted.

Meanwhile, Top Glove expects a dividend yield of more than 6% for the financial year ending August 31, 2021 due to soaring demand for rubber gloves during a pandemic.

Lee added the company was comfortably positioned with cash reserves of RM2 billion. – November 25, 2020.