3/09/2025

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WEDNESDAY | SEP 3, 2025

BDx Data Centers teams up with Hexa Renewables

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s share of the glove market in the United States has risen to 56% this year, up from 46 47% in 2024, driven by high tariffs imposed by the US on China, said Hartalega Holdings Bhd. Hartalega executive chairman Kuan Kam Hon said the tariff in general is helping Malaysian glove manufacturers as Malaysian exporters are at 19%, compared to 80% imposed on Chinese products. “There are two tariffs here. One is the Section 304 tariff, the Chinese were impacted by this, gloves being exported to the US are subjected to 50% tariff under this rule. Then there is the reciprocal tariff. China will have a 30% tariff, whereas Malaysia is at 19% (total). So definitely this is helping us,” he told a press conference after the company’s AGM yesterday. Currently, Hartalega’s share in the US market is 10%. Kuan said glove consumption is projected to reach 370 billion pieces in 2025, up from 357 billion recorded in 2024. “This would put demand close to the pandemic peak, when usage hit a record 380 billion pieces in 2021. What China’s JD.com invited to explore smart warehouse investment in Selangor Aeropark KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has invited China’s one-stop e-commerce platform, JD.com, to consider investing in Selangor Aeropark’s Smart Warehouse, a move aimed at further consolidating Kuala Lumpur International Airport’s (KLIA) position as a regional logistics hub. Transport Minister Anthony Loke said such an investment would provide greater efficiency and support for Malaysian and Asean products in accessing the Chinese market. During a one-to-one engagement with JD.com, he highlighted Malaysia’s aspiration to develop KLIA into a major air cargo hub for the Asean region, fully aligned with JD.com’s strategy to expand its trade network across Asean and China. “In my meeting with JD.com, I reaffirmed Malaysia’s commitment to advancing the cooperation between KLIA and Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport, as outlined in a joint statement between both countries following President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Malaysia in April this year,” said Loke in a Facebook post. Both sides shared the vision of esta blishing a seamless “Air Silk Road” between Asean and China, through comprehensive collaboration in civil aviation and logistics, he noted. Loke joined Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on a four-day working visit to Beijing, engaging in a series of strategic discussions with top Chinese industry leaders to enhance investment and explore new collaboration opportunities. – Bernama Ű BY HAYATUN RAZAK sunbiz@thesundaily.com

KUALA LUMPUR: BDx Data Centers, a data centre operator in Asia, is partnering with Hexa Renewables, a Taiwan-based re newable energy provider, to pio neer an innovative cross-border model that adds new clean energy capacity to the region, specifically the Singapore-Malaysia energy grid. The collaboration directly add resses challenges around sourcing renewable energy in Singapore, while funding the development of new green energy projects in Malaysia. It underscores the com panies’ shared focus on sustain ability and innovation across the region’s energy and digital infra structure sectors. Under a memorandum of understanding between the two companies, BDx will indirectly import at least 50 megawatts (MW) of renewable energy from projects developed and operated by Hexa Renewables in Malaysia. It provides for “additionality” where Hexa Renewables can bring to life projects in Malaysia sup ported by BDx’s commitment, injecting new clean power into the regional grid that would otherwise be marginal to develop and operate on its own without such support. This energy will help BDx meet the rising demand for sustainable

collaboration in accelerating the energy transition,” said Hexa Re newables CEO Vince Choi. BDx currently operates its flagship data centre in Singapore’s Paya Lebar District. Constructed over 20 years ago, BDx has transformed the building into a state-of-the-art, BCA-Green Mark Platinum-certified data centre. BDx aims to deploy one gigawatt (GW) of capacity across the region. Its partnership with Hexa Renewables forms part of its broader sustainability strategy to build a fully green-powered digital infrastructure network. The com pany is actively exploring similar renewable energy initiatives in every market it operates in, reinfor cing its commitment to driving environmentally responsible data centre growth across Asia and beyond. Meanwhile, Hexa Renewables, which is an independent energy producer operating in wind, solar and battery power, aims to develop, own and operate up to 5GW of renewable energy power generation and battery storage projects in the Asia-Pacific re gion. The company targets an aggregate investment of US$5 billion (RM21 billion) in the coming years.

o Partnership adds clean energy capacity to region, especially the Singapore-Malaysia grid

Renewables hyperscale data centre growth with renewable energy, setting a new stan dard for cross-border collaboration in the digital infrastructure space.” He added that AI has caused an explo sion in digital needs, and with it require ments from digital infrastructure. aligns

digital infrastructure, aligning with Singa pore’s Green Plan 2030, and also as serve as an innovative model of cross-border decarbonisation ini tiatives, with Singa pore set to add at least 300MW in data centre capacity which can potentially be sup ported with green energy. As a pioneer in

With Singapore expected to add more than 300MW of capacity in the near term, this move puts sustainability at the centre of that expansion, he said, adding that this is a key milestone in supporting Singapore’s, and more broadly the region’s, climate ambitions. “As Singapore advances its Green Plan 2030, the private sector must lead by example. Our part nership with BDx represents a meaningful step in cross-border energy cooperation. It supports national sustainability goals while showcasing the power of regional

artificial intelligence (AI) infra structure, BDx operates Indo nesia’s first Sovereign AI data centre campus, powered by renewable energy and certified by Nvidia under the DGX-Ready Data Centre Programme. This positions BDx at the forefront of delivering advanced AI infrastructure while maintaining sustainability at its core. “Performance and environ mental responsibility are not mutually exclusive,” said BDx CEO Mayank Srivastava ( pic ). “Our partnership with Hexa

Hartalega: Malaysia’s share of US glove market increases to 56%

it means is that glove consumption is expected to continue to grow, the demand is there although chal lenging.” However, Kuan said oversupply remains a drag as Chinese manu facturers relocate to Indonesia and Vietnam to bypass tariffs. “Because of the tariff, Chinese manufacturers who lost the US market have moved to Southeast Asia, mainly Indonesia and Vietnam, to rebuild capacity and export from there at the same 19–20% tariff as Malaysia,” Kuan said. “Once the capacity in Indonesia and Vietnam is ready, the playing field will be levelled. For the time being, they have lost significant market share in the US, but they will gain it back very quickly,” he added. Vietnam already has small-scale production, while Indonesia is ex pected to have significant capacity by year-end. “I am quite certain that by the end of the year, they will be exporting medical-grade gloves,” Kuan said. On a separate matter, Hartalega is contesting additional tax assessments amounting to RM101.36 million issued by the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) for the financial years 2017 to 2022.

From left: Hartalega Holdings chief business officer Kuan Mun Keng, Kuan Kam Hon and CEO Kuan Mun Leong at the press conference following the group’s 19th annual general meeting.

of the biggest tax contributors in the country. “From 2020 until now, we have paid more than RM2.1 billion in taxes. During Covid-19, we contributed RM19 million to the government fund. There has never been any intention to evade tax, all payments were made based on consultants’ recommen dations and audited accordingly,“ he said.

resolved. “Normally the procedure is that companies have to pay first, but we initiated legal proceedings and the court has granted us a stay order. So there is no financial impact on our books until a decision is made,”he told reporters. Kuan stressed that Hartalega has consistently complied with its tax obligations. He said Hartalega is one

The additional assessments were received by its subsidiary, Hartalega NGC Sdn Bhd, comprising RM13.92 million for 2017, RM36.35 million for 2018, RM10,695 for 2019, RM32.89 million for 2020, RM18.1 million for 2021 and RM90,624 for 2022. Kuan said the company has ob tained a stay order from the court, meaning it is not required to make any payments until the legal process is