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By Naveen Thukral 

The firm expects revenue and net profit to rise 20 percent in 2008 and 2009, boosted by strong demand for its surgical gloves from Asia to Europe, Chairman Lim Wee-Chai said told Reuters in an interview.

"If the dollar had been stable, our income would have been much better," he said. "We have started selling in euros in the European countries this year, and we will change (over) slowly in other markets."

The dollar edged towards an eight-year low against Japan's yen on Tuesday, extending its sell-off as fresh signs of deterioration in credit markets hurt global shares and sparked unwinding of carry trades.

Speculation the Federal Reserve might lower U.S. interest rates from 3 percent before its scheduled meeting on March 18 spurred dollar selling.

Lim did not say how much of a hit the company had suffered due to the weakening greenback.

Top Glove is aiming to raise production capacity 25 percent to about 35 billion single gloves from 28 billion by the end of this year on surging demand for rubber gloves.

"Latin America, eastern Europe and Asian countries now use a lot of rubber gloves and the growth is very strong," Lim said from the company's headquarters in the port city of Klang.

PLANTATION LAND DELAYS

High land prices have forced the company to delay plans to buy rubber plantations in Malaysia and neighboring Thailand.

"The price of rubber is high, and so the price of rubber plantations is high," Lim said. "We prefer to invest at a lower cost of entry."

Top Glove, which has close on 25 percent of global market share for rubber gloves, has 18 manufacturing units in Malaysia, Thailand and China.

Lim said a ban on latex gloves by Johns Hopkins hospital in the United States was unlikely to dent sales. "We are producing and selling synthetic gloves (for the U.S. market), so it is not going to affect our business," he said.

In an effort to make medical care safer for patients and healthcare workers, Johns Hopkins has become the first major medical institution to become "latex safe" by ending all use of such gloves and almost all medical latex products.

Studies show roughly 6 percent of the general population are allergic to latex but up to 15 percent of healthcare workers suffer a reaction due to longer periods of contact with natural rubber, according to media reports.