UPA Corp ventures into healthcare

PETALING JAYA: UPA Corp Bhd is venturing into the healthcare business with the manufacture of melt-blown nonwoven fabric made of ultra fine polypropene which is a key material in the production of 3-ply mask and surgical face mask, via its wholly owned subsidiary UPA Healthcare Products Sdn Bhd.

It has been granted a conditional approval granted by the Malaysian Investment Development Authority for the manufacturing licence.

According to the group’s Bursa filing, it has placed an order with a melt-blown technology developer to supply a production line to produce melt-blown non-woven fabric meeting required filtration efficiency.

It stated that the investment into the project is estimated at RM10 million and it will be funded internally.

UPA Corp revealed that the production line will be installed in its existing facility in Seri Kembangan, Selangor and it is expected to commence production by end-November this year.

The maximum annual production capacity for melt-blown non-woven fabric is at 600,000 kgs while the maximum production capacity for 3-ply mask and surgical face mask is at 86 million pieces per year for the first phase.

The melt blown fabric business is not expected to have material effects on UPA for FY20 ending Dec 31, but is expected to contribute positively to the future earnings of UPA as large volumes of masks are expected to continue to be an essential item for the mass population.

Post pandemic, the group expects the melt-blown non-woven fabric to continue to be an essential material for the medical and filtration industries.