From the Wall Street Journal:
Malaysian rubber glove makers, the world’s biggest, are getting a boost from the Ebola outbreak in West Africa on speculation there’ll be a jump in demand for the products used to prevent infection.
The country is one of the world’s largest natural rubber producing countries, and the glove producers typically receive a bump when global health worries surface on bets more will be needed for medical procedures, and that companies will stock up as a precaution too.
Shares of the world’s largest glove maker, Top Glove 7113.KU -1.44% Corp Bhd., have rallied as much as 6.7% this month while competitor Kossan Rubber Industries 7153.KU -3.08% has jumped 5.2% and Supermax up 17%.
Analysts however are less sanguine about a sudden surge in demand, even as a second U.S. Ebola patient arrived at an Atlanta hospital Tuesday.
“While some glove companies have seen an increase in demand from the affected African countries, sales contribution from these countries is negligible, leading to minimal earnings impact,” CIMB analyst Eing Kar Mei wrote in a note this week. She says they’ll only be an impact on demand if there’s a significant rise in Ebola cases globally and a depletion in glove inventories....MORE
