Top Glove to look at adjusting selling prices and automation with rising costs

SHAH ALAM: Top Glove Corp Bhd will look at adjusting selling prices and automation to mitigate the impact of the revised natural gas tariff and new ruling on foreign labour levy.
Chairman Tan Sri Dr Lim Wee Chai said any price revision would depend on raw material prices and the exchange rate.
"If rubber price increases, we would have to increase our glove selling price. If the US dollar strengthens, we would revise the price downwards," he said at an analyst and media briefing today.
Executive director Lim Cheong Guan said a price revision would typically range between 3% and 5%.
Commenting on the new ruling on foreign labour levy to be fully borne by employers, Wee Chai said the decision was too sudden and made without proper dialogue with industry stakeholders.
Based on its foreign workforce of about 6,000 to 7,000 workers, the levy cost would amount to some RM12 million per annum for Top Glove.
Wee Chai said it has already invested a lot in automation over the past three years, which has helped the company save on some 1,000 foreign workers and will continue to invest in research and development and automation to lower operating cost.