Top Glove Corp. Bhd., the world's largest rubber glove producer, saw net profit jump 20 times to 2.4 billion ringgit ($590 million) in the fiscal first quarter of 2021 through November from the same period a year earlier, as global demand surged during the pandemic, the Malaysian company announced Wednesday.

Despite being dogged by negative headlines after more than 5,000 of its employees were infected with coronavirus, forcing it to shut dozens of its factories and prompting an investigation by authorities over labor welfare issues, the company said it "attained its highest ever quarterly sales revenue of 4.76 billion ringgit, representing a 294 percent increase compared with the first quarter of the financial year 2020."

Addressing the issue of a virus outbreak in its workers' dormitories, founder and Executive Chairman Lim Wee Chai told a virtual media briefing that the four-week closure since Nov. 17 of 28 plants in Klang, about 50 kilometers north of Kuala Lumpur, caused an overall production drop of around 4 percent.

But, operations began resuming in stages on Tuesday and are expected to be at 100 percent within two to three weeks, he said.

The company said, as of Tuesday, 5,147 of its workers tested positive for the coronavirus, and 90 percent have been released from hospitals.

The outbreak spotlighted the company's treatment of its migrant workers as authorities cited cramped living conditions as having contributed to the virus's spread.

The United States implemented an import ban on the company in July after U.S. Customs and Border Protection alleged that there were signs of forced labor at two of its subsidiaries.

The ban has caused exports to the United States to drop by 2 percent during the quarter, Top Glove said.

The company said it has set aside 100 million ringgit to improve workers' facilities and accommodations. It is also "making good progress" in its talks with U.S. customs officials over the ban.

Elsewhere the company reported double-digit growth. Exports to Japan grew 12.4 percent in the September-November quarter compared to a year ago.

Going forward, the glove maker sees demand growing by 25 percent in 2021.

It has earmarked 10 billion ringgit for capital expenditures over the next five years to increase capacity by an additional 100 billion units.

Top Glove has 47 factories in Malaysia, four in Thailand, and one each in China and Vietnam, capable of producing 90 billion gloves annually.

==Kyodo

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