NEWS
On March 8, Kumho Petrochemical Co., Ltd. (CEO Park Chan-Koo) announced a donation of 2 million medical latex gloves (worth approximately 300 million won) to help medical workers in Daegu and Gyeongsangbuk-do Province suffering from the COVID-19 outbreak.
Kumho Petrochemical aims to deliver a total of 2 million pieces of gloves to domestic medical institutions in March, starting with the provision of 1 million medical latex gloves in Daegu and Gyeongsangbuk-do Province through the Korean Red Cross this week. Currently, manufacturers in China and Malaysia account for more than 90 percent of the global supply of medical latex gloves, and it is difficult to secure large quantities of the products due to surging global demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The donation was made in partnership with Kumho Petrochemical, the world’s No. 1 producer of Nitrile Butadiene Latex (NB Latex), and its production partners. One million pieces, half of the volume, were prepared by adding 200,000 gloves given away from Chinese latex glove manufacturer ZhongHong Pulin and 800,000 pieces that Kumho Petrochemical additionally purchased. In January of this year, prior to the government's enforcement of restrictions on the export of masks abroad, Kumho Petrochemical delivered 2,000 masks for employees of ZhongHong Pulin, which was concerned about production disruption due to the coronavirus. In appreciation for the support, the manufacturer expressed its intention to provide medical latex gloves, its own product.
Another 1 million gloves were obtained as Malaysian glove manufacturer Central Medicare Sdn Bhd (CMSB) announced its intention to cooperate. Kumho Petrochemical explained that both companies, being deeply sympathized with the purpose of supporting, cooperated in all aspects ranging from the purchasing unit price to delivery schedule and local customs clearance procedures.
Latex gloves, known as “nitrile gloves” and increasingly expanding in use, are made of NB Latex, which is the flagship synthetic rubber product of Kumho Petrochemical. NB Latex effectively replaces natural rubber that may cause protein-induced allergic reactions, and despite its thinness, it has excellent tensile strength, thus being widely used to make gloves for cooking and industrial use other than medical gloves. With the world’s largest production capacity of latex at 580,000 tons per year, Kumho Petrochemical actively participate in overcoming the difficulties in Daegu and Gyeongsangnam-do Province by producing all the latex products at its Ulsan plant.
