KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 19): RHB Investment Bank Bhd said today Covid-19 vaccine deployment could be a new demand source for rubber gloves at up to 18 billion pieces a year assuming that 60% of the world’s population of 7.5 billion people will get the vaccine in two doses annually.
"As each contact with a person should lead to the usage of one pair of disposable gloves, a vaccine deployment will generate demand of 18 billion pieces per annum in the short term. If the vaccine protection period is only up to a year, this 18 billion pieces per annum demand will recur on an annual basis. This is equivalent to 6.8% of the 263 billion pieces per annum global gloves demand in 2019,” RHB analyst Alan Lim wrote in a note today.
Lim said RHB maintained its "overweight" call on the rubber glove sector as the long-term demand outlook for gloves remains positive.
Citing the H1N1 influenza outbreak as an example, Lim said that after the outbreak ended between 2009 and 2010, glove demand dropped slightly in 2011 on a year-on-year basis by 1.3% or two billion pieces to 148 billion pieces a year.
"A vaccine deployment itself could boost global gloves usage by up to 7%,” he said.
News on Covid-19 vaccine trials under the Pfizer Inc-BioNTech collaboration and Moderna Inc have been closely followed.
It was reported today that Pfizer and BioNTech said they could secure emergency US and European authorisation for their Covid-19 vaccine next month after final trial results showed it had a 95% success rate and no serious side effects.
It was reported that Moderna on Monday released preliminary data for its vaccine showing 94.5% effectiveness.
"Pfizer said it expects to make as many as 50 million vaccine doses this year, enough to protect 25 million people, and then produce up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021," Reuters reported.
Source: The Edge Markets