Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Gloves
What are current market prices for Nitrile medical grade gloves?
Beware of many scammers! They offer you low prices, but you will never get any products or at worst get scammed. As of End April 2021, the pricing structure that manufacturers and sellers offer is the following:
gloves that can be delivered within 2-4 weeks: high prices of around 10-13 USD FOB per box (Southeast Asia) and around 11-15 USD FOB per box (China)
gloves that can be delivered within 2-4 months: lower prices of around 8-10 USD FOB are possible. You need to book in advance and at least pay a deposit before receiving the products.
There is no ready stock in Asia. All gloves are sold immediately. If you are being told that there is ready stock of quantities such as millions of boxes lying around in Asia this is simply a scam and not true.
If you think some low prices are possible in 2021 during this pandemic, you are simply wasting your time. The whole world has been in desperate need of gloves since spring 2020 and we receive frequent requests for huge orders. Most of these orders will not be fulfilled in 2021. This simply means: Anyone who has real products will never offer you low prices. Consequently, anyone offering you a low price is likely to be a scammer. Companies with real stock and real production lines can sell at a high price. If you are an agent / trader and not the final customer, do teach your buyers these truths about the market and make them buy at real market rates.
Prices for gloves have been continuously increasing since the outbreak in spring 2020 and are predicted to further increase in 2021. The demand for nitrile gloves has increased by 500% compared with the situation before COVID. For the whole year of 2021 the demand for gloves will continue to far outweigh supply which will lead to even higher prices in 2021. We therefore recommend every client to buy all the gloves they need in 2021 as soon as possible.
Can you share certificates and test reports for gloves?
We only give them out to clients that firstly have a serious company and secondly can prove their order with LOI & POF or in other ways. Many fake buyers and brokers just try to get certificates without any serious purchase intent. There are also many scams going on of fake sellers trying to scam buyers into buying from them by showing certificates and pretending to have stock that does not exist. Therefore, we only share certificates if you can prove that you have a serious intent to purchase. As you may know, all factories for gloves would not share their certificates during the pandemic as well unless you deposited money into their account.
How to find gloves on stock in Europe / USA?
The very great majority of stocks in Europe and the USA are simply fake. Almost all gloves that are being shipped from Asia to Europe / USA are sold before they arrive. If some gloves happen to arrive in Europe / USA without being sold already, they will be sold in a few hours or latest a few days after arriving. Your chance of getting stock in Europe is close to zero. We really do not recommend hunting for stock in Europe / USA as this will waste weeks if not months of your time without any result. If you want to be sure to get gloves you have to purchase in Asia directly. Please also note that there are many fake sellers, scammers and unprofessional brokers sharing around huge quantities of stocks in Europe and the USA that range from 50 million boxes to even billions of boxes. All those offers are simply 100% fake. If you happen to be one of the lucky ones to find real stock then you will have to expect prices of at least 9.5 EUR per box as of April 2021.
What are your payment conditions?
Of course, TT is preferred. However, we perfectly understand that this is too risky for most buyers. We can thus offer you LC or Escrow paying out after SGS inspection for most of our glove deals.
Why can’t I buy gloves directly from factories during this pandemic?
Almost all gloves during this pandemic are only sold via agents. There are several reasons for this:
- Agents select the right buyer. During this pandemic, factories simply have no time to do this job. Selecting the right buyer is a difficult job as there are many fake buyers. Fake buyers are people who just ask around for information and after getting that information will use it to scam other people. As a matter of fact, everyone will try to protect their information until they are sure that a buyer is genuine.
- Agents have relationships with a factory, often not only on business but on personal level. Based on these special relationships or agreements with the factory, agents are able to get gloves at a time when normal buyers can’t. This, however, means that agents need to feed back money to the factory. Once a deal is completed via an agent, the agent will, as an example, give benefits to a factory shareholder that he is friends with. This could be called corruption, but it is the way things work in Asia during this pandemic. And this is also the key reason why factories will reject you when you call them directly. Because you as a final customer will not pay any benefits to them (“corruption money”). Also, they do not know you personally, so they will refuse to deliver you products directly even if they could. This might sound crazy but is the reality in countries such as Vietnam, Thailand or Malaysia at least during this pandemic where demand far outweighs supply.
- Factories do not have time during this pandemic to directly deal with end buyers as they are too busy with production. Therefore, in most cases, they will only sell gloves to agents they know and trust.
Can I order large numbers such as 100 million boxes?
It is possible over the right timeframe. However, the main problem about large orders is that factories do not trust that buyers will stick to their orders and pick up all boxes they ordered from the factory. It is a common scam of buyers that they pretend having large orders to put pressure on the price. However, these buyers will never pick up all their orders and leave the factory after getting only a small amount for a low price. As a result, everyone distrusts large orders nowadays. We thus highly recommend you to first make a trial order of 500’000 or a few million boxes before trying to get larger quantities. This will increase trust between seller and buyer and future larger orders have a better chance to be successful. If you don’t want to go for a trial order and order regular supply form production line directly then you will have to accept a higher price for the first few deliveries and a lower price for the later deliveries. For example, in September 7 USD per box, in October 6.8, in December 6.5, in January 2021 6 USD per box. This is to make sure that you pick up all the deliveries and do not leave the factory after just the first delivery. The future low prices will be guaranteed no matter what the situation with the pandemic is.
Why is LOI / POF mostly needed to get gloves?
Because fake buyers are a huge problem. These are people who just ask around for information and then use that information to pretend to other buyers that they have products and finally will scam them. Sellers want to be sure they are dealing with a legitimate buyer, that you are serious about your order and not wasting their time. Consequently, most sellers will require you to submit LOI & POF. Without these documents it is in many cases not possible to ask details about the products or to discuss the price. Sellers need to be sure you have both the intent (LOI) and the financial ability (POF) to purchase products.
How to write a LOI? (letter of intent)
Write a letter listing all the requirements about the product you want to buy. Try to include as many as possible of the following points:
- buyers’ company
- product: brand, quantity, material, certificates, size ratio
- target price
- delivery: number of products from stock or future production, incoterms (EXW / FOB / CIF), expected delivery schedule & first delivery (quantity and how long after signing contract), freight terms (if any), destination
- payment terms (LC, Escrow, TT)
- other requirements if any
The letter must also have a date and include your name, company name and signature
How to write a POF? (proof of funds)
This is a document that is usually provided by your bank. It is to prove that you have enough funds to pay for the products you wish to purchase. For example, if you want to buy 10 million boxes of gloves and each box costs 7 USD, then your POF must show that you have at least 70 million USD on your bank account.
What is the general procedure for purchasing gloves?
1.) Buyer provides LOI (letter of intent) and POF (proof of funds).
2.) After receiving LOI & POF, the seller will issue FCO (full corporate offer).
3.) Buyer and seller sign SPA (contract).
4.) Video proof of stock with your name written on a piece of paper.
5.) Seller will prepare goods for shipment and buyer can invite an inspection company such as SGS before delivery. Payment must be made TT or paid out from LC / Escrow immediately after SGS inspection.
6.) Goods are shipped. You can book SGS loading & discharge supervision to make sure your products are delivered safely along the whole route.
Can I get a sample before buying?
Please, do not ask for samples! In our opinion this is an unreasonable demand. Firstly, sellers do not want to send around samples because of the problem of fake buyers. By the time the samples arrive at your place, the stock is most likely already sold. Secondly, even if you get samples, there is no guarantee that the products you buy later are real. A scammer could send you real samples and still sell you fake products. The only way to guarantee real products is to call an inspection by a third party such as SGS. As a result, we refuse to send samples in most cases. The only justification for samples that we could consider to be legitimate associates to government customers who might need to test gloves in official labs. However, you could simply have the products tested by an inspection company such as SGS on site.
Is it safe to buy gloves from South East Asia?
In most cases no. There are far more scammers in Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia than real sellers. It is also likely that most people you have spoken to so far are scammers. The safest country to buy gloves from in Asia at the time is China. We, of course, can sell you gloves from South East Asia, either our own stock / production line or from sellers we vetted and trust. On the whole, however, you should be aware that buying from China would be a safer option.
Can you quote CIF prices for Europe / USA?
Delivery by sea freight to Europe or USA will cost around 0.3 USD per box. Delivery time from, for example, Thailand to USA is around 45 days (New York), Los Angeles (25 days), Seattle (30 days). Please note that these are estimates. The delivery time and price depend on the shipping company and shipping route.
Delivery by air freight to Europe or USA will cost around 2.5 – 4 USD per box. Prices of air freight change frequently. If you really need products fast by air, then you should find the cheapest airline after you purchased the goods. An airfare quote before purchasing the goods is relatively meaningless as prices are subject to change.
Are Skymed gloves fake?
Skymed is a famous brand of gloves that previously belonged to Phoenix Rubber Gloves, a factory in Bangkok. However, this brand is not produced by them anymore. A company in Bangkok called Sufficiency Economy City Ltd. has continued to sell the Skymed brand in the form of so-called repackaging gloves. This means that gloves from other origins are simply packed into boxes with the Skymed brand printed on it. There is no factory producing Skymed gloves and the certificates are not valid. We strongly advise against buying this brand. You can find more details about the issue of Skymed and repackaging gloves under the following link: https://ppedad.wordpress.com/2020/07/09/skymed-nitrile-gloves-thailand-is-skymed-really-a-scam/