Top Glove, syarikat pembuatan sarung tangan terbesar yang memainkan peranan penting dalam membekalkan sut perlindungan diri untuk memerangi Covid-19 kini terjejas ekoran wabak tersebut.

Kluster Teratai, yang berkait dengan syarikat itu di Meru, Klang kini menyaksikan 53 kes baru hari ini, menjadikan jumlah keseluruhan 214 kes.

Data kementerian kesihatan Malaysia (KKM) menunjukkan kluster tersebut tidak terhad di Meru, di mana terdapat 20 kilang Top Glove dan asrama pekerjanya, yang juga merangkumi daerah lain seperti Kuala Selangor, Petaling dan Hulu Langat.

“Setakat ini, ramai dah dibawa ke pusat kuarantin, tetapi masih ada mereka yang perlu ke kerja. Ia sukar (untuk kami) kerana kami takut sekarang,” kata pekerja itu.

Ratusan pekerja kilang Top Glove telah menjalankan kuarantin di hotel sekitar daerah Klang, menurut pekerja yang bercakap dengan Malaysiakini.

Beberapa pekerja mendakwa, 300 pekerja telah dibawa menaiki bas dan van ke hotel daerah Klang, yang kini digunakan sebagai pusat kuarantin.

"Beberapa operasi pengeluaran kilang hanya dalam separuh kapasiti, kerana kekurangan tenaga kerja," kata pekerja itu.

Menurutnya, ramai yang telah dikuarantin kerana Top Glove telah mengasingkan mereka yang adaa kontak rapat dengan kes positif.

Sinovac vaccine is inactivated whole virus with formalin

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 12): AmInvestment Bank believes that while glove demand will stay stable post-Covid-19 pandemic, average selling prices (ASPs) will drop as there will no longer be a rush for gloves.

“We reckon that ASP will stabilise at a higher level than pre-pandemic level due to the broader usage of gloves,” it said in a note on Top Glove Corp Bhd today.

The research house’s analyst Thong Pak Leng said it believed that glove demand will remain strong, based on reasons outlined by Top Glove during a webinar, which include a higher awareness of personal hygiene and broader use of gloves beyond the healthcare sector.

In addition, Thong said there may not be an oversupply of gloves after the pandemic, as Top Glove had pointed out that there are key issues in ramping up supply that need to be addressed, including the availability of contractors to build production lines, the shortage of foreign workers and constraint of nitrile raw material.

Top Glove has also allocated 30% of its capacity for spot orders. “The spot orders for nitrile glove have been fully sold for the next three months. Meanwhile, the spot orders for natural rubber powder-free gloves are also increasing due to the long lead time of nitrile gloves,” said Thong.

Presently, Top Glove has a total production capacity of 90 billion pieces per annum.

To expand further, Top Glove has allocated capital expenditure of RM10 billion over the next five years for capacity expansion to double its current capacity by the end of 2025, said Thong. This will be done in stages whereby 14 billion pieces will be added for FY21 and 16 billion for FY22.

AmInvestment Bank maintains its "hold" call on the stock with a lower fair value of RM7.88, adding that the group’s fundamentals remain solid for the next few years.

“We maintain our view that Top Glove’s net profit will peak in FY21 as demand soars from the Covid-19 pandemic with increased capacity expansions. We make no changes to our FY21–FY23 net profit forecasts at RM6.5 billion, RM2.3 billion and RM2.2 billion respectively.

“Our ASP assumptions are US$60 per 1,000 pieces for FY21, US$35 per 1,000 pieces for FY22 and US$28 per 1,000 pieces for FY23 with an average utilisation rate of more than 80%,” said Thong.

Top Glove is currently fourth on Bursa’s top losers list, having fallen 19 sen or 2.42% to RM7.67. The stock is currently valued at RM62.34 billion.

Chinese vaccine makers either lead, or are involved in, five of the 11 vaccine efforts that have reached Phase III trials. Combined, they're testing their candidates in hundreds of thousands of volunteers in over a dozen countries around the world.

Phase III trials are designed to evaluate a vaccine's effectiveness and safety on a large scale. Each trial requires tens of thousands of volunteers so there's a better likelihood of turning up rare side effects.

But beyond standard vaccine testing, at least three Chinese vaccine makers are involved in China’s emergency use vaccine program, which has allowed participating vaccine makers to inoculate hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens—if not more—outside the bounds of clinical trials and before the candidates are proven safe and effective.

China’s government has not disclosed how many COVID-19 vaccine doses it has distributed through the emergency use program, but vaccine makers and local governments have released some limited data. State-owned vaccine maker Sinopharm reportedly distributed over 480,000 doses of its candidate in China as of mid-October; that total may include doses that were part of a clinical trial. China’s eastern Zhejiang province, meanwhile, also said in October that it had administered 743,000 flu and coronavirus shots in 2020 without providing further details on how many of the shots were for COVID-19 or which COVID-19 vaccine candidate it used.

In August, China allowed Sinovac to distribute the CoronaVac candidate to frontline medical workers, government employees, and other essential workers in China through the emergency use program.

By September, the company confirmed that it had inoculated tens of thousands of people through the program, including 3,000 company employees, plus their families.

Russia’s sovereign wealth fund RDIF said early results from its phase three clinical trial of Russia’s coronavirus vaccine, called “Sputnik V,” showed its efficacy amounted to 92%.
The announcement came two days after U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech said their vaccine was more than 90% effective in phase three trials.

More share price volatility next week as Pfizer will release its final Covid-19 vaccine full results

Retail investors switch funds from top 4 glove counters to AT

PFIZER AND BIONTECH ANNOUNCE VACCINE CANDIDATE AGAINST COVID-19 ACHIEVED SUCCESS IN FIRST INTERIM ANALYSIS FROM PHASE 3 STUDY
Monday, November 09, 2020 - 06:45am

Vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants without evidence of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first interim efficacy analysis.

Analysis evaluated 94 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in trial participants.

Study enrolled 43,538 participants, with 42% having diverse backgrounds, and no serious safety concerns have been observed; Safety and additional efficacy data continue to be collected.

Submission for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) planned for soon after the required safety milestone is achieved, which is currently expected to occur in the third week of November.

Clinical trial to continue through to final analysis at 164 confirmed cases in order to collect further data and characterize the vaccine candidate’s performance against other study endpoints.

US Vaccine vs Russia Vaccine President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia is about to register its third vaccine against the coronavirus, according to Russian news agencies.

Putin said Tuesday that “all” Russian coronavirus vaccines were effective and that the country would soon register a third vaccine against the virus, news agency RIA reported Tuesday.

SAO PAULO/BEIJING (Reuters) - Brazil's health regulator has suspended a clinical trial for China's Sinovac coronavirus vaccine citing a severe adverse event, surprising the trial organisers who countered there had been a death but it was unrelated to the vaccine.

WASHINGTON: The United States has set a third straight daily record for new Covid-19 infections, notching more than 127,000 cases, John Hopkins University reported on Friday (Saturday in Malaysia).

Meanwhile, the death toll as of 8.30pm (0130 GMT) over the past 24 hours was 1,149, the Baltimore-based university said.

RM75 millions donation Supermax only needs 7 days PAT to recover that amount of money

Supermax very strong financial cash flow whereby retained earnings RM2 billions+ and cash balances RM2 billions+ as end Sept 2020.Next year Supermax management will be giving out special dividends as EPS FY2021 at least RM1.50 (RM4 billions PAT)

Aiyoh...Only RM100 million donation super low impact on Supermax financial as cash balances until end September 2020 already RM2.3 billions.Following every quarter at least RM1-1.5 billions will be added to Supermax cash balances until end 2021.

Large local institutional funds such as EPF,PNB,KWAP and LTH will be buying Supermax shares continuously until KLCI next review early December which is another 3 weeks away.

Final election result will be Donald Trump re-elected as next US President.

Donald Trump will be re-elected as US President as he is expected to win in hot contested states such as Florida,Texas,Pennsylvania,North Carolina,Michigan,Winscosin and Georgia.

Tomorrow Supermax strong rebound after heavy sell off today.Excellent fundamental company nothing to worry.Special dividend will be announced next year.

Top 4 glove companies selling gloves overseas markets ASPs increasing double digits every month especially Oct-Dec as Covid19 hits all high 550,000 cases worldwide and US alone average 90,000 daily cases.

The U.S. is reporting an “extremely high and quite unacceptable” daily number of Covid-19 cases ahead of the winter season when people will be spending more time indoors and threatening to spread the virus even more, White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said.
The positivity rate, or the percentage of tests that are positive, is increasing in over 30 states, and roughly 13 states are in the “red zone,” which means they have a positivity rate above 10%, Fauci said. A high positivity rate is a sign that “there’s more infection out there that we’re not turning over,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, told CNBC on Friday.

“That’s something that you wish you did not have as you enter into the colder months because out of necessity, a lot more things are going to have to be done indoors because of the weather,” Fauci said.

Super Covid-19 daily new cases hit all time record 100,000 cases today in US.

Post removed.Why?

Waiting RM2.50 fair buy

As I said earlier Supermax closing green today.Must attend online AGM early December for more superb info from Supermax management.

Closing green

Supply shortage of 200 billion gloves per year. This is a seller market whereby ASPs will remain high for next 5 years.

New record high cases in Europe 270,000+ daily cases. US daily cases breaks past 90,000 to record new high in daily cases.

Sunset business means decreasing revenue and profits every quarter.All glove companies will report record high profits and revenues for FY2021.

Believe it or not next 2 weeks all European countries will declare national lockdown as daily new cases breaks past 200,000 and on target to break 300,000 within 5-7 days.

Supermax cash balances increase RM1.2-1.5billions every quarter for next 3-4 quarters

Malaysia cases drop zero effect on Supermax.Supermax selling gloves to 165 foreign countries and ASPs keep increasing every month.Worldwide daily cases breaks past 500,000 and on target to break 600,000-700,000 cases within 2 weeks approaching winter season.

Russian Sputnik V Vaccine Outcome (since August 2020):
MOSCOW — Russia’s daily tally of coronavirus cases surged to a record high of 17,717 on Thursday, including 4,906 in Moscow, taking the national total to 1,581,693 since the pandemic began.Authorities also reported a record high of 366 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 27,301.

The U.S. reported another 80,662 coronavirus cases on Wednesday, according to a tally kept by NBC.The U.S. also reported an additional 996 deaths in the last day.
NBC said the number of new cases surpassed the previous high of 79,303, set last Friday.

Supermax super normal profits for FY2021 at least RM4billions will eventually declare special dividends next year

Covid-19 pandemic is getting worse day by day now already breaks 500,000 daily new cases worldwide even though winter season is still 2-3 weeks away.Expect deadly winter season with worldwide daily new cases reach 600,000-700,000 cases for at least 2-3 months.Genting share price below RM2.50 is a fair buy and below RM2 is a good buy.

Next QR announcement end January another record high revenue,profit,earnings per share and cash balances for Supermax.Revenue=RM1.7-1.8billions,PAT=RM1.1-1.2billions,EPS=40-45sen,Cash balances=RM3.8-4billions.

(CNN)-As Covid-19 cases continue to jump during the fall surge, Dr. Anthony Fauci says there's little chance of normalcy on the horizon.

The US will have a vaccine in the next few months, but there's a chance a "substantial proportion of the people" won't be vaccinated until the second or third quarter of 2021, Fauci said.

"I think it will be easily by the end of 2021, and perhaps even into the next year, before we start having some semblances of normality," Fauci said during a University of Melbourne panel discussion Tuesday.

Things aren't looking too good for the US as the winter approaches, he said Wednesday.

Twenty-nine states set new records this month for the most new daily cases since the pandemic began, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

"We're not in a good place," Fauci during a virtual Q&A session on Wednesday. "Now we're averaging about 70,000 a (day). That's a bad position to be in."

"I would not be surprised if we end up getting to 100,000" new cases daily."

White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNBC in an interview Wednesday that the United States is “going in the wrong direction” as coronavirus cases rise in 47 states and infected patients overwhelm hospitals across the country.

“If things do not change, if they continue on the course we’re on, there’s gonna be a whole lot of pain in this country with regard to additional cases and hospitalizations, and deaths,” the White House coronavirus taskforce member said in an interview Wednesday evening on “The News with Shepard Smith.”

In the Midwest, cases and hospitalizations are surging at record numbers. Wisconsin had a 7-day positivity rate of 28% while Minnesota reported its highest number of Covid-19 hospitalizations to-date. Hospitalizations have tripled in less than three weeks in El Paso, Texas. Joel Hendricks, the Chief Medical Officer at El Paso’s University Medical Center even warned about the possibility of rationing hospital care there during an interview with NBC’S Gabe Gutierrez.

“There is very little appetite for a lockdown in this country,” said Fauci. “There’s going to be major pushback both from above and at the local level, however, what Melbourne did, what Australia did as a country, was very successful.”

Dr. Fauci suggested doubling down on masks, distancing, and avoiding crowds and congregations amid Americans’ coronavirus fatigue, and added that the country would “be much better than we’re doing right now.”

The coronavirus pandemic continued setting records in the United States on Tuesday, as a relentless raft of new infections pushed the country’s seven-day average of reported cases to its highest level ever.

For the first time, the nation’s rolling average — considered more reliable than fluctuating daily cases counts — topped 70,000, according to Washington Post.

This latest surge has spared no corner of the country: 29 states have reported record numbers of infections in the past week.

More than 43,000 people are hospitalized, a figure approaching the worst of the midsummer peak. The average number of deaths reported each day has also been ticking slowly upward for a month and now stands at 815 people.

The European Union doesn’t expect to have enough vaccines for everyone in the 27-country bloc until 2022, Reuters reports, citing an internal meeting that happened Monday.

“There will not be sufficient doses of Covid-19 vaccines for the entire population before the end of 2021,” a European Commission official said, according to Reuters.

The EU, which is home to about 450 million people, has already acquired 1 billion doses of potential Covid-19 vaccine and is working on getting another billion

A further 367 people have died in the UK in the last day, the highest daily increase in five months and 50% higher than the daily increase last week.

The figure is more than six times the daily death toll of 54 announced on 23 March when the national lockdown began. It confirms fears about the escalating second wave of the pandemic and brings the total of those who died within 28 days of testing positive to 45,365.

The government said that, as of 9am on Tuesday, there had been a further 22,885 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK, bringing the total number to 917,575.

The coronavirus pandemic continues to pick up speed in Spain, with the Health Ministry reporting 18,418 new daily infections on Tuesday, as the country’s doctors began their first national strike in 25 years.

The cases are up around 33% compared to last Tuesday, and for the first time ever, more than 200,000 new cases have been confirmed over the last two weeks.

Hospitals are feeling growing pressure, with nearly 16,700 active COVID-19 patients – up more than 600 compared to Monday. Now, more than one-quarter of all the country’s intensive units are used to treat those with the infectious disease.

Recent images from hospitals in Valencia and Toledo show patients being treated in the hallways due to overflowing emergency wards.

Since Monday, another 267 people died of COVID-19.

On Tuesday, doctors across Spain began their first nationwide strike in a quarter of a century, although the disruption to hospitals was limited.

France reports 523 new deaths, the highest daily death toll since April. Reuters reports that Tuesday’s death toll data included hospital deaths, which are reported on a daily basis, and 235 retirement home deaths over the past four days.

The country registered 1,194 new coronavirus patients in hospital and 148 people in the intensive care unit over the past 24 hours.

There are nearly 18,000 people currently hospitalised in France for COVID-19, a number that was under 10,000 just two weeks ago. There are also nearly 3,000 people currently in intensive care units.

Italy registers highest death toll since mid-May. Italy registered 221 coronavirus deaths on Tuesday – the highest daily toll since 15 May – and 21,944 new infections. The worst affected regions are Lombardy (where over 5,000 new cases were confirmed), Campania in the south and Piedmont.

Angela Merkel warns Germany’s health system could hit breaking point. The chancellor is bringing forward high-level talks to decide on new restrictions to break the second wave of the pandemic, daily newspaper Bild.

Merkel told party colleagues that the number of new cases is doubling every seven to eight days, while the number of occupied intensive care beds is doubling every 10 days.

The number of new coronavirus infections in Germany is likely to reach 20,000 a day by the end of the week, economy minister Peter Altmaier said on Tuesday.

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 27): Supermax Corp Bhd today posted a record quarterly net profit of RM789.52 million, up almost 32 times from RM24.75 million a year ago, thanks to the continued booming demand for rubber gloves amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The glovemaker’s bumper earnings for its first quarter ended Sept 30, 2020 came as revenue surged 265.6% to RM1.35 billion, from RM369.94 million a year ago.

The group attributed the stellar earnings growth to higher average selling prices for gloves and continuous robust gloves demand.

“Supermax’s already sound financial position has strengthened dramatically, most notably to a net cash position with cash and bank balances amounting to RM2.36 billion as of Sept 30, 2020. This is mainly due to high collections from increased sales where customers pay between 30% to 50% deposits in advance to secure supply,” said the glovemaker in a filing.

It also noted that its products are sold to over 165 countries and it currently exports 58% of production under its own brands via its own distribution centres and 40% through independent distributors.

“Due to the current robust demand, we are taking the opportunity to build new relationships with new customers and distributors in anticipation that they will continue with repeat orders post pandemic,” the group added.

In terms of capacity expansion in Malaysia, Supermax said it has put in place expansion plans of building five glove manufacturing plants between now and 2022.

“This will yield additional production capacity of 22.25 billion, making a total of 48.42 billion gloves by the end of year 2022. The Supermax Group will invest a total capital expenditure of RM1.39 billion for the new plants,” it said.

Meanwhile, the group said, the vulnerability to disruption of personal protective equipment (PPE) supply chains and over-dependence on imports is the primary concern of governments around the world.

“To address this major concern in countries where Supermax operates, we are reinvesting the earnings derived from our distribution centres into the respective countries in particular in the United States and the United Kingdom.

“We are now in the planning stages and will kick-start the US and UK projects in 1H2021 and target commission in stages starting 1H2022,” it said.

The capital expenditure earmarked for the US is US$300 million for phase 1 and US$250 million for phase 2, totalling US$550 million, and for the UK, it is £50 million.

Supermax has also decided to enter into face mask manufacturing in Malaysia and Canada.

“This is to complement our existing global supply chain that the group has built over the years. We have started delivery of millions of masks to the government in Canada since early October 2020,” it said.

During the quarter, Supermax has also witnessed expansion in both its manufacturing and distribution contributions.

“We are optimistic that our own brand manufacturing (OBM) cum distribution business model will exhibit even healthier performance as we are in an oversold position,” it said.

Supermax, which was one of the top gainers on Bursa Malaysia today, closed 57 sen or 6.19% higher at RM9.78, valuing the group at RM25.05 billion. Year to date, the counter has surged 1,297%.

Supermax QR is the best among all glove companies in terms of EBITDA and PAT margin highest compares to other top 3 glove companies.Expect another strong buying momentum from local and foreign institutional investors tomorrow morning.

Hartalega next QR in January should be at least 800 millons profit

France entered week two of a second coronavirus wave with a more than doubling of fatalities.

Over the last 24 hours, 258 deaths were recorded, up from 116 on Sunday, according to the Ministry of Health.

The total number of fatalities now stands at 35,018.

The test positivity rate for France also rose to 17.8% from 17% the day before.

On Monday evening, 26,771 new cases were recorded.The total number of infections now stands at 1,165,278.

Monday's hospitalizations were reported at 13,066 with 1,904 of those patients remaining in intensive care.

A total of 54 departments in France remain under a nightly curfew from 9 p.m. until 6 a.m. which will last for the next three weeks.

Italy became the latest European country to announce new restrictions to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus on Sunday as countries across the continent continue to report surging infections.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announced the new restrictions as the country reported a record 21,273 cases on Sunday. Beginning Monday, restaurants and bars will be required to close by 6 p.m., and gyms, pools and movie theaters must shut down entirely. The restrictions are the fourth round of tightening this month in Italy, and the most severe since the country lifted its nationwide lockdown in May.

Italy had 1,208 covid-19 patients in intensive care on Sunday — more than on March 9, when Conte announced the lockdown.

France registered a record 52,010 new confirmed coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, following a record 45,422 on Saturday, the health ministry said in a statement on Sunday, as a second wave of cases surges through Europe.

In the past three days, France has registered over 139,000 new cases, which is more than the 132,000 cases registered during the two-month lockdown from mid-March to mid-May.

The health ministry said that 116 people had died from coronavirus infection over the past 24 hours, compared to from 137 on Saturday, taking the total to 34,761.

The number of people who tested positive during massive testing under way in the whole country increased to 17%, from 16% on Saturday and around 7% a month ago.

The health ministry reported no hospital data on Sunday, but on Saturday the number of people in hospital with coronavirus rose by 652 to 15,660 and the number of people in intensive care by 59 to 2,500.

Spain has declared a national state of emergency and imposed a night-time curfew in an effort to help control a new spike in Covid-19 infections.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the curfew, between the hours of 23:00 and 06:00, would come into force on Sunday.

Under the emergency measures, local authorities can also ban travel between regions, he said.

Mr Sánchez said he would ask parliament to approve an extension of the new rules from 15 days to six months.

Spain was hit hard during the first wave of the pandemic earlier this year and imposed a much more restrictive lockdown - one of the toughest in the world.

Like many other European regions, however, it has been hit by a second wave of infections.

"The situation we are going through is extreme," Mr Sánchez said in a televised address on Sunday, adding: "It is the most serious in the last half century."

The new emergency measures, which more than half of Spain's 17 regions had been calling for, apply to all regions except the Canary Islands.

Spain has passed one million cases since the start of the pandemic and nearly 35,000 people have died.