KUALA LUMPUR: Hartalega Holdings Bhd is keeping a positive outlook on the long-term fundamentals of the global glove industry, pointing out that underlying demand continues to exceed pre-lockdown levels, supported by essential and recurring healthcare consumption, rising hygiene standards and broader glove usage across industries.
It said customer inventories have largely normalised, supporting more sustainable replenishment patterns, although ordering trends remain uneven across markets. Industry conditions continue to vary by market.
"Hartalega’s established customer relationships in the US, combined with its Malaysia-based production footprint, position the group to capture incremental US sales volume. The group will continue to prioritise product quality and social compliance, both of which remain critical for customer qualification and access to global healthcare markets," it said.
For its second quarter ended Sept (2QFY27) for the financial year ending March (FY27), the group saw net profit surge 79.2% year-on-year (y-o-y) RM32.8mil, in tandem with revenue that grew 19.5% to RM644.7mil.
Hartalega attributed the turnover growth primarily to higher average selling prices (ASPs), with sales volume broadly stable, which helped offset increased raw material costs, although these increases were not fully passed through to customers.
The group added that pricing discipline and its ongoing cost optimisation initiatives, including tighter cost control and improved production efficiency, had also contributed significantly to profitability in 2QFY27.
For the six months ended September, bottom line more than tripled y-o-y to RM102.8mil, alongside a 14.4% increase in revenue to RM1.25bil, which Hartalega said was primarily driven by higher US dollar-denominated ASPs amid elevated raw material costs arising from the Middle East conflict.
The strong year-to-date improvement in net profit was attributable to higher ASPs, pricing discipline and ongoing cost optimisation initiatives, including tighter cost control and improved production efficiency, which helped offset higher raw material and unit production costs, it said.
Compared to the preceding quarter ended June however, net profit was halved from RM70mil, even though top line actually edged up 6.4% from RM605.8mil.
Hartalega said the sharp drop in ASPs during late 2QFY27, coupled with lower operating profit and a RM7.4 million decline in net other operating income, mainly due to a higher net foreign exchange loss, were the reasons for the decline in sequential profitability.
The group did not propose any dividends for 2QFY27.
Hartalega added that it will continue to implement timely selling-price adjustments where appropriate to recover higher input costs, while balancing prevailing competitive conditions and customer demand.