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Indorama invests US$25 million in rubber glove industry
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A worker collects rubber latex from a plantation in Batam. (Antara/Aditiya Pradana Putra)
T
he world’s largest polyester value chain company Indorama has injected US$25 million investment into its subsidiary, PT Medisafe Technologies, which produces rubber gloves.
With the move, Medisafe will build its sixth plant at its North Sumatra complex, which has existed since 1989.
After the expansion, production capacity is expected to increase to 2.7 billion rubber gloves per year and give employment to 1,700 people, Indorama chairman Sri Prakash Lohia says.
"Indonesia is our main pillar to grow in the Asia-Pacific, the existence of high-quality local products in the international market is a base to develop this rubber glove industry further," Sri Prakash said in a statement issued on Friday.
Medisafe and YTY chairman Vikram Hora said 99 percent of their products were exported to the United States and Europe.
Industry Minister Airlangga Hartarto appreciated the investment. He also hoped that companies in the rubber industry could build research facilities so that they could boost the export quality of the product.
"Indonesia’s rubber glove exports in 2016 reached $232.5 million, placing this industry in second position after the tire industry as the biggest rubber derivatives [exporter]," he said during the inauguration of Medisafe’s factory.
The ministry's downstream chemical industry director Teddy Caster Sianturi said the country's rubber manufacturing industry had not reached its maximum potential because as the second biggest natural rubber producer in the world, only 20 percent of annual raw natural rubber production was being utilized by domestic industries. (bbn)
