The price increase cycle for gloves has been confirmed, with steady growth in cardiovascular products. Blue Sail Medical's profitability reversal is clear, paving the way for a double boost from both earnings and valuation.
Introduction: Glove business volume and prices are rising, with profitability elasticity set to be released soon.
Author |Wooden box
Editor |Little White
On April 28, 2026, Blue Sail Medical (002382.SZ) released its Q1 2026 earnings report, showing revenue of 1.625 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.33%. Non-GAAP net profit was -9.4968 million yuan, significantly improving by 82.46% compared to -54.1395 million yuan in the same period last year. The two core businesses of health protection and cardiovascular have achieved substantial profitability recovery.
Reviewing the stock's performance this year, the company's share price has cumulatively increased by over 30%.
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On the evening of April 1, 2026, the actual controller Li Zhenping, based on recognition of the company’s intrinsic value and firm confidence in its future stable and healthy development, as well as to safeguard shareholders' interests and boost investor confidence, planned to invest no less than 20 million yuan within one week. The next day, he completed a 20.5 million yuan purchase ahead of the earnings report window period, exceeding his commitment.
Many signs indicate that after years of adjustments, there seem to be new changes occurring in the company’s fundamentals in 2026.
After careful analysis, Fengyun Jun discovered that Blue Sail Medical is not only entering a positive profitability cycle but also seeing its leading position and pricing advantages further highlighted against the backdrop of geopolitical conflicts, significantly boosting performance in the health protection business starting from the second quarter. More importantly, the company itself has entered a new phase of innovation-driven development.
The health protection industry landscape is being reshaped, with rising volumes and prices opening up elastic space.
Fengyun Jun once reviewed the characteristics of tenfold mega stocks, with the core logic reflected in four dimensions: supply contraction (coupled with market share increase), demand growth, monetary easing, and corporate transformation (reform and innovation).
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The development path of Blue Sail Medical's health protection business, to a certain extent, fits this framework and can be analyzed along these lines.
(1) The turning point in industry supply and demand has been established, with structural optimization benefiting domestic leaders.
On the supply side, the glove industry has undergone two rounds of capacity reduction in recent years: from 2021 to 2024, an oversupply led to plummeting prices and a prolonged downturn that eliminated numerous small and medium-sized enterprises. Starting from the end of 2024, the imposition of high tariffs by the US accelerated the industry's shift towards overseas markets, favoring well-funded leading companies.
The current geopolitical conflict has caused a shortage of raw materials, with upstream production prioritizing enterprises with long-term competitiveness. Coupled with cost pressures, this will further consolidate the industry, triggering a third round of market restructuring.
By 2025, global sales of disposable gloves are expected to reach 829.3 billion units, with annual production capacity estimated at around 900–950 billion units, mainly concentrated in Southeast Asia. Malaysia ranks first, followed by China, with Thailand and Vietnam trailing behind.
The escalation of geopolitical tensions triggered a sharp surge in international crude oil prices. As a core raw material for nitrile gloves, the cost of nitrile butadiene latex (NBL) skyrocketed. Combined with supply disruptions due to blocked transportation through the Strait of Hormuz and damage to refining facilities, glove manufacturers faced dual pressures of rising costs and limited supply.
For instance, upstream raw materials for nitrile gloves, such as butadiene and acrylonitrile, are highly reliant on crude oil. Once crude oil supplies are restricted, the operation of related refining facilities may decline, potentially halting production in some regions, which could lead to a shortage of butadiene.
From mid-February to the end of March, the price of butadiene surged from 10,000 yuan per ton to 18,000 yuan per ton, marking an 80% increase that overwhelmed the cost defenses of smaller factories, accelerating their exit from the market.
In April 2026, WRP in Malaysia announced it would begin a phased shutdown starting April 15. This mid-sized company, with an annual production capacity of over 10 billion units, became a landmark event symbolizing the industry crisis and capacity reduction.
In contrast, China's glove industry, supported by a complete petrochemical supply chain, stable raw material availability, and low-cost energy advantages, continues to demonstrate strong overall competitiveness. Domestic leading enterprises have not only remained unscathed but also seized global orders amid the turmoil, significantly increasing their market share and strengthening their influence in the global industry.
On the demand side, disposable gloves, as a commonly used protective product, can effectively prevent cross-infection. Driven by factors such as global epidemics, rising consumption levels in developing countries, and vast potential market demand, the industry enjoys long-term rigid support for demand.
Overall, after three rounds of reshuffling, the supply and demand dynamics of the glove industry have shifted from 'oversupply' to a 'tight balance,' with prices entering an upward cycle. From February to May 2026, the price of nitrile gloves rose from approximately $15 per box to double that, with Malaysian companies quoting over $30 per box. PVC glove prices were also gradually pushed higher, allowing industry leaders to start restoring profitability.
In fact, starting from the third quarter of last year, the glove industry has entered a recovery cycle, with overall inventory at a reasonable level. Even without the recent price hikes driven by geopolitical conflicts, products had already been expected to increase in price. However, this US-Iran conflict further solidified and accelerated the price hike trend in the glove industry.
Given that the restoration of key factors such as overseas energy production, chemical capacity, and logistics networks will take a long time, and considering that raw materials like nitrile latex are likely to remain high while downstream demand is rigid, it is expected that the glove price hike trend will continue for some time.
(II) Forward-looking full-chain layout deepens cultivation, volume and price rise together for greater profit elasticity
Against the backdrop of a persistently sluggish global industry and accelerating capacity liquidation, Blue Sail Medical has broken through against the odds, with its core competitiveness and global market share steadily increasing.
Even during the first half of last year when the industry became depressed, and domestic PVC glove and nitrile glove operating rates fell to around 20% and 50%, respectively, the company maintained an operating rate above 80% for its glove products, continuously expanding its export share, while its market reputation and customer base kept growing.
In terms of energy infrastructure, in 2025 the company integrated Hongda Thermal Power using additional funds from Thai industrial investors and built another combined heat and power facility, fully addressing energy shortages and further reducing production energy costs.
In research and innovation, the company has continuously increased investment in technological innovation, with diversified high value-added new products being mass-produced one after another. For instance, polyurethane gloves, which went on sale in 2024, are an exclusive global product with outstanding performance advantages, and successfully entered multiple international markets in 2025.
In terms of raw material strategy, since 2026, Blue Sail Medical accurately predicted the price trends of chemical raw materials and secured strategic procurement reserves in advance, essentially locking in raw material costs for the first half of 2026. If glove prices increase, the company will enjoy significant profit margins.
At the same time, the company leverages deeply integrated industrial resources to build a highly controllable and strongly supported integrated industrial chain advantage:
(1) The related party, Langhui Petrochemical, as the national leading enterprise in plasticizers and paste resins, which are core raw materials for PVC gloves, is able to ensure stable supply of core raw materials for PVC gloves while enjoying transportation cost advantages;
(2) The Thai industrial investor possesses over 200,000 tons of nitrile latex production capacity, which can guarantee the supply of raw materials for nitrile gloves when needed by the company;
(3) The company recently signed a deepened strategic cooperation framework agreement with Qixiang Tengda, the leader in China's nitrile latex industry, further ensuring the stability of the nitrile latex supply chain.
Currently, the company’s glove production capacity has reached full output and full sales. In the future, it can provide expansion flexibility through technical upgrades and activating reserved capacity at the Weifang base.
With extensive expertise in raw materials, energy, production capacity, and R&D, under the logic of rising volume and price, Bluestar Medical's gross margin is expected to increase significantly, providing substantial profit elasticity.
In the first quarter of 2026, before any product price hikes, the health protection business had already turned losses into profits. Based on company disclosures, the newly signed order prices for nitrile gloves have risen sharply, and it is expected that the performance growth of the health protection sector will be concentrated in the second quarter of 2026.
Overseas high growth in cardiovascular and cerebrovascular sectors, with innovative products accelerating in adoption
Bluestar Medical is the only medical device company among Chinese enterprises with highly global platform capabilities, possessing a worldwide network of R&D, production, and sales that reaches approximately 100 countries and regions globally.
In 2025, revenue from the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular business was approximately 1.4 billion yuan, growing by over 24% year-on-year; in the first quarter of 2026, operations remained robust and profitable, with annualized net profit further increasing compared to the 2025 operating level (i.e., divisional net profit plus back the fair value change loss of Tongxin Medical, estimated at about 120-140 million yuan).
The overseas market has become the core growth driver for the cardiovascular sector, with overseas revenue expected to exceed 1 billion USD in 2025, accounting for approximately 60%. In the first quarter of 2026, overseas revenue from cardiovascular products grew by over 20% year-over-year, reflecting the company's core advantage in overseas sales channel deployment.
Among these achievements, the ALLEGRA series Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) system, which obtained EU CE certification in June 2025 and features a retrievable function, experienced rapid volume growth after its launch. Building on a more than 90% increase in sales volume in the second half of 2025 compared to the first half, sales in the first quarter of 2026 rose over 40% quarter-over-quarter and surged more than 160% year-over-year.
In tandem with its coronary innovation pipeline, in January 2026, the company’s Lithonic™ Intravascular Lithotripsy System (IVL) received EU CE certification, and overseas shipments began in March. The company became the first leading domestic cardiovascular enterprise to secure IVL certification in mainstream overseas markets, seizing an exclusive market opportunity.
Additionally, the next-generation coronary stent is currently in the clinical review stage, and the drug-coated balloon is planned for EU CE certification submission in 2026. Going forward, a steady stream of self-developed new products will enter the overseas market, forming a virtuous cycle of 'launching some, submitting applications for others, and researching even more.'
While selling its own branded products, the company also empowers high-quality domestic innovative medical device companies such as Beixins Life, Baixins An, and Ju Zheng Medical by acting as their overseas market agent. It has become a core platform for domestic innovative devices entering international markets, with an expanding portfolio of agency products.
Through investment incubation and agency sales, Bluestar Healthcare covers technologies like Renal Denervation Systems (RDN), Intravascular Ultrasound Systems (IVUS), and peripheral high-pressure balloons. Its product range extends from coronary and structural heart diseases to hypertension, peripheral vascular conditions, and neurovascular fields, forming a multi-disease, multi-category product portfolio.
Domestically, due to the timeline for implementing the centralized bulk procurement of coronary drug-coated balloons organized by the state, which was tendered in January 2026, domestic cardiovascular revenue declined year-over-year. However, in the medium to long term, this will still benefit the market influence and sales growth of the company’s products. The short-term impact of the procurement is expected to gradually diminish in the second half of the year.
Another noteworthy development is that Bluestar Healthcare initially acquired shares in Unity Medical at a valuation of 1 billion USD. Unity Medical's STAR Market IPO process is proceeding steadily, currently at the inquiry response stage. If the IPO is successfully completed in 2026, it will bring substantial investment returns to the company and boost overall profit levels.
In the first quarter of 2026, Bluestar Healthcare reported stable revenue and significantly narrowed losses, with both core businesses simultaneously reaching turning points.
The health protection industry has undergone three rounds of capacity shakeouts, compounded by geopolitical conflicts driving up raw material prices, resulting in a tightening glove supply-demand balance and rising prices. Leveraging its end-to-end layout across raw materials, energy, and R&D, the company boasts significant cost advantages, positioning it for a strong rebound in profitability in the second quarter.
The overseas channel advantages in the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular business are becoming increasingly prominent, with innovative devices experiencing rapid growth. The medium to long-term growth trajectory is well-established.
Coupled with significant share purchases by the actual controller and the anticipated listing of Unity Medical, the company’s fundamentals have seen comprehensive improvement, presenting an opportunity for both earnings and valuation recovery.
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