Malaysian glove makers to gain as EU targets China
The European Union accounts for almost 30% of Malaysia's total glove exports.
PETALING JAYA : Malaysian glove makers are likely beneficiaries of the European Union's move to exclude Chinese companies from public tenders for medical devices, including gloves, valued at over €5 million (RM24.6 million).
CIMB Securities said the exclusion could result in stronger demand from EU buyers seeking alternatives to China-sourced gloves.
The EU's move is a response to its finding that EU companies do not have fair access in China as Chinese tenders have been heavily biased towards local suppliers with artificially low bids, the research house said.
'This will limit Chinese companies' access to approximately €150 billion (RM738.9 billion) annually in EU public spending within this segment.
'While tenders exceeding €5 million accounted for only about 4% of total tender count in 2023, they represented around 60% of total tender value,' it said in a note today.
The EU is a strategically important market for local glove manufacturers. The bloc was Malaysia's second-largest glove export market by region in 2023, accounting for an estimated 28%–30% of Malaysia's total glove exports, said CIMB.
The potential increase in demand would be an added boost for the local glove sector on top of expected expansion in the US rubber-glove market, it added.
However, CIMB expects any rise in EU demand for gloves from other countries, including Malaysia, to be short-term – three-to six months at best, as the EU and China have expressed willingness to negotiate.
This issue would likely be a topic of discussion during the EU-China Summit scheduled for next month.
'While we anticipate potential near-term share price re-ratings for glove stocks following this announcement, we expect Chinese glove makers to pursue workarounds, such as leveraging EU-based trading partners, or exporting from manufacturing facilities outside China,' it noted.
CIMB has maintained its 'neutral' recommendation on the glove sector because of persistent challenges. This includes a 'difficult operating environment' with low sales demand, and higher costs due to the recent rise in the sales and service tax and minimum wage.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Analysis-Europe placates Trump with NATO pledges it can ill afford
LONDON (Reuters) -In their rush to retain Donald Trump's support for NATO, the alliance's European members have promised to more than double the amount of wealth they set aside for military spending. The snag is that most can ill-afford to spend 5% of output on defence - so while there will be some unpalatable sacrifices in national budgets, there will also be some creative accounting to divert existing spending to the effort. "They will not get there," Guntram Wolff, senior fellow of the Bruegel think-tank, said of the 5% goal. "If you are a highly indebted country you can't issue more debt, it means very difficult budgetary choices," he said of the hefty tax hikes or spending cuts that it would require. As a piece of political theatre, the Hague summit at least won over its intended audience: Trump himself. Amid concerns about his commitment to NATO's mutual defence clause, he said the United States stood with its European allies "all the way". While few dispute that Europe needs to do more to ensure its own security as tensions with Russia rise, the fixation on the 5% target cut short a separate debate about how it could be using its existing military budgets more efficiently, for example with national governments agreeing on joint procurement. Now it has saddled itself with pledges which - with the notable exception of Germany, whose finances are solid after years of fiscal frugality - most members will find hard to keep. To hit the 5% threshold, European Union countries, whose debt pile already tops 80% of output, would between them have to nearly triple the 325 billion euros ($377 billion) they spent on defence last year to more than 900 billion. Non-EU Britain - whose debt is 100% of output and which already pays more in debt servicing than for every spending item apart from health - would need an extra 30 billion pounds ($41 billion). "The potential losers are not just future generations saddled with huge debts, but today's societies," said Nick Witney at the European Council on Foreign Relations. "Disgruntled populations, whose sense of economic wellbeing has never recovered from the global economic crash of 2008, will likely become even easier prey forpopulist or nationalist politiciansgathering strength across Europe." GUNS OR BUTTER? To be sure, the closer a country sits next to Russia, the less domestic angst there is about finding the extra cash - Poland, the Baltics and Finland are all cases in point. Years of rivalry with neighbouring Turkey have meanwhile attuned Greek public opinion to accept higher defence spending. But Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez - whose country is alone in not expressly signing up to the new target - voiced the concerns of others when he said the goal was "incompatible with our welfare state". Slovakia, one of the central European countries whose budgets face the greatest strains from the defence build-up, has also baulked at the target, arguing that raising living standards and cutting its borrowing were equally important. Bruegel's Wolff said it remained to be seen whether countries increase their defence quotas by shaving the odd billion here and there off other areas, or whether big-ticket areas such as pensions take a sizeable hit. "But keep it in proportion - there will still be a welfare state but perhaps less generous," he said of social protections across Europe that can account for anything up to 30% of the economy. As leaders depart the Hague summit venue, the national conversations on defence will sound strikingly different to those that were had in the run-up to the gathering. The 5% breaks down into 3.5% to be spent on "core" defence - troops and weapons - and 1.5% on defence-related measures such as adapting roads and bridges to handle military vehicles. The room to wedge existing spending items into the second category will likely prove generous. In France, for example, there is discussion about whether that could include the gendarmes policing country lanes, who are formally part of the defence ministry but whose existing running costs currently lie outside the defence cost tally. The long deadlines aired for hitting the target - in some cases up to a decade - are also an opportunity for those pledges to be fudged as the political spotlight shines elsewhere. "Spending goals will simply be missed," said Witney. "The transformation required will begin to take shape, but less rapidly and less coherently than if more realistic targets had been set." ($1 = 0.7344 pounds) ($1 = 0.8613 euros) (Writing by Mark John; additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski in Brussels; Leigh Thomas in Paris; Maria Martinez in Berlin; William Schomberg in London; Eleftherios Papadimos in Athens; Anne Kauranen in Helsinki; Simon Johnson in Stockholm; Gergely Szakacs in Budapest; Jan Lopatka in Prague; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Free Malaysia Today
2 hours ago
- Free Malaysia Today
Stop downplaying concerns over rakyat's burdens, PM told
Opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin (right) accused Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of being 'thin-skinned' in response to criticisms from PN MPs. PETALING JAYA : The opposition has accused Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim of dismissing public concerns over the economic burdens faced by the people as the expansion of the sales and service tax is set to take effect on July 1. In a Facebook post, opposition leader Hamzah Zainudin criticised Anwar for downplaying the concerns raised by PN MPs as 'gimmicks'. 'PN MPs have raised their concerns about the cumulative burdens borne by the public, but the prime minister seems thin-skinned. 'He assumes all the criticisms raised by the opposition stems from ignorance. 'When PN MPs warned that the upcoming RON95 rationalisation could worsen things, PMX said it was merely a gimmick by the opposition,' he said. On June 16, The Star reported Anwar as saying the opposition's negative narrative on the government's proposed subsidy rationalisation exercise is just a 'desperate gimmick' to show that people are facing hardship. 'There is more negative news from them when we need encouraging news to propel our economy,' he said. The SST expansion will see the 0% sales tax rate for basic necessities maintained, and rates of 5% to 10% imposed on non-essential goods from July 1. The service tax will be expanded to include rent, lease, construction, financial services, private healthcare and education. Anwar justified the tax's expansion to include imported goods as a targeted measure aimed at high-income earners. However, Hamzah said the expansion to include over 4,000 goods and services is increasingly burdening the people. 'The government seems indifferent and stuck in denial,' he said.
Malay Mail
2 hours ago
- Malay Mail
DL Holdings and ViaBTC Sign a Non-Binding Term Sheet for Strategic Cooperation in Digital Assets
HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach Newswire - 25 June 2025 - DL Holdings Group Limited ( issued a voluntary announcement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on June 24, 2025, stating that it has signed a non-legally binding term sheet with ViaBTC Holdings Limited (hereinafter referred to as "ViaBTC"). The two parties plan to establish a joint venture to initiate in-depth collaboration and jointly explore the broad prospects of the digital assets and blockchain services sector. The announcement reveals that DL Holdings and ViaBTC intend to engage in deep collaboration across several areas, including: joint conduct over-the-counter (OTC) cryptocurrency trading service; provision of professional asset management and family office services for OTC and/or cryptocurrency mining clients to meet their diversified wealth management needs. The two parties also plan to explore other potential business collaborations, such as establishing a Bitcoin (BTC) reserve, developing a virtual asset trading and virtual asset management platform licensed by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong, and further expanding their business footprint. Additionally, DL Holdings Group plans to apply for a stablecoin license to provide comprehensive digital payment solutions for cross-border collaboration between DL Holdings and ViaBTC is highly significant. For DL Holdings, this partnership will help bridge the traditional and digital asset sectors, leveraging ViaBTC's mature crypto infrastructure and synergizing with its extensive professional expertise in financial advisory, securities trading, and brokerage services. Through the establishment of a joint venture, DL Holdings will gain access to the high-growth digital asset and blockchain services this collaboration will enable DL Holdings to extend its existing asset management and family office services to OTC and cryptocurrency mining clients, creating diversified revenue streams, expanding market coverage, and enhancing shareholder in 2016, ViaBTC is a blockchain technology company offering services covering a variety of digital assets. Its core business, the cryptocurrency mining pool, supports multiple cryptocurrencies and payment methods. It currently ranks as the third-largest Bitcoin mining pool globally, boasting profound technical expertise and extensive industry strategic collaboration with ViaBTC marks another critical step in DL Holdings' "Technology-Empowered Finance" strategy. By integrating with its subsidiary NeuralFin's AI financial ecosystem platform, DL Holdings is gradually building a three-dimensional business matrix that spans traditional finance, digital assets, and intelligent investment Chen, Chairman of the Board of DL Holdings and NeuralFin, commented: "From NeuralFin's AI financial assistant to ViaBTC's blockchain infrastructure, we are building a seamlessly connected next-generation financial services network. In the future, whether users are managing traditional stocks, funds, or Bitcoin and stablecoins, they will be able to do so efficiently within the same intelligent ecosystem."Moving forward, NeuralFin's powerful AI capabilities may deeply integrate with ViaBTC's digital asset business—for example, using intelligent algorithms to provide cryptocurrency investors with real-time risk monitoring, cross-market asset allocation advice, and customized investment strategies based on blockchain data. ViaBTC's mining pool resources and compliant trading platform will also expand the one-click configuration scenarios for digital assets for NeuralFin users, further strengthening the synergy between "AI + blockchain" and providing technology for the digital transformation of global financial #DLHoldingsGroup The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
