The Pandemic Is a Bonanza for Malaysia’s Medical Glove Industry

Well before the new coronavirus came to global attention at the end of January, Lim Wee Chai had a feeling his company was headed for a good year. Since he founded Top Glove Corp. Bhd., the world’s largest maker of medical gloves, in 1991, there’s been one constant: Pandemics are good for business. “SARS, H1N1, bird flu, swine flu—there was a big surge in orders and demand,” Lim says. So as reports of a mysterious virus began to emerge from China, “we prepared ourselves for a big thing.”

The same is true of Lim’s local rivals. Malaysia is ...