KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 8): The Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association (Margma) estimated that the Malaysian glove industry suffered losses of about RM1.8 billion from 2020 to 2022 as a result of the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sanctions on six glove companies.

Margma president Dr Supramaniam Shanmugam also said the CBP’s import ban for the four glove industry players, namely YTY Group, Smart Glove, Brightway Group and Supermax Corp Bhd, will be lifted “very soon”.

Sanctions imposed on Top Glove Corp Bhd in July 2020 were lifted in September 2021. Meanwhile, WRP Asia Pacific Sdn Bhd, which was slapped with a withhold release order (WRO) in September 2019, said its sanctions were removed in March 2020.

“The RM1.8 billion is a very conservative number,” Shanmugam said in a press conference on Monday (Aug 8) after the Malaysian Rubber Council (MRC) launched its new guide for employers to tackle forced labour in the rubber industry in Malaysia.

“By the six companies [sanctioned] in different times put together based on exports by America, we computed, this is the amount between 2020 to 2022. It is very small as we made RM55 billion in 2021 alone at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“But did it hurt us? Yes, of course financially, because we are taking money out from the bottomline to sort it out,” Shanmugam said.

He indicated that Malaysia’s rubber glove industry exports to the US roughly amounts to 30% of total output.

The latest estimated loss is half of the RM3.6 billion projected in March.

“When we made the estimates then, it was based entirely on the US market only. However, a lot of what was not taken up by the US market was subsequently sold off to the other [more than] 190 countries worldwide. Hence, the numbers are almost halved,” said Supramaniam in response to subsequent questions by The Edge.

As for remediation payouts made by industry players to their affected employees between 2020 to 2022, Shanmugam said it “easily breached RM350 to RM400 million”.

“Almost all companies in different levels [have paid], some smaller companies paid quietly and dismissed. We got 75 members (in our association), we are getting all of them to make sure this is done … I do not have the numbers with me on who has done it, but I know many did,” he said.

Shanmugam also highlighted that Margma will be meeting the US authorities in Washington DC in January 2023 for further discussions.

He said the association is also going to make social compliance, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) the industry’s unique selling proposition going forward.

When asked which 11 International Labour Organization (ILO) indicators of forced labour that the Malaysian rubber gloves companies were often called out for, Shanmugam said “debt bondage” and “excessive overtime”.

“Why overtime? Because of the Covid-19 pandemic. We were summoned by the various governments of various countries as they needed gloves,” he said.