Environmental Scan 2017 | Page 85

Environmental Scan 2017: Human Capital Issues within the Medical Devices Sector iv) Top Glove, the global largest gloves manufacturer, is committed in building one to two factories every year as part of its growth strategy. The company completed the construction of Factory 30 and started its operation in May 2017. This new plant has a capacity to produce 4.4 billion gloves per year. The construction of another two new manufacturing facilities in Klang are currently in progress. Factory 31 will be operational by May 2018 and Factory 32 is expected to be operational by December 2018. Upon completion, these two new factories will increase the Group’s total number of production lines by 78 and production capacity by 7.8 billion gloves per year. v) Japanese medical devices manufacturer, Japan Lifeline Co Ltd, through its Malaysian subsidiary JLL Malaysia Sdn Bhd is investing RM70 million to build its first overseas factory in Penang. The factory, which will produce medical devices for cardiac rhythm management, electrophysiology or ablation and cardiovascular surgery for Japanese markets such as balloon catheters, electrophysiological catheters, ablation catheters and open stent grafts, will be built on 16,211 square metres of land in North Penang Science Park. The construction is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2020 and operations will start with about 50 workers initially. 2.4.2 Further consolidation within the surgical/medical gloves segment i) In 2017, Top Glove through its wholly owned subsidiary GMP Medicare acquired A1 Glove Sdn Bhd and Titi Glove Sdn Bhd. ii) Top Glove Corp Bhd has also entered a conditional share purchase agreement with Adventa Capital Pte Ltd to acquire the entire equity interest in glove manufacturer Aspion Sdn Bhd for RM1.37 billion, which upon completion will make Top Glove the world’s largest surgical glove manufacturer, besides being the largest glove manufacturer globally. The transaction is expected to be completed by April 2018. 2.4.3 Introduction of halal certification for medical devices by the third quarter of 2018 Currently, the certification which was drafted by JAKIM together with the Department of Standards Malaysia is at the final stage of public feedback. The aim of the halal certification is to capture the halal medical device market which at present is still at its infancy stage 85