The manufacturing association president, Denis Low Jau Foo, said Gas Malaysia was repeating its “bad habit of making sudden and surprise announcements of gas price hikes”.

He said GMB had announced a new gas tariff on Friday, to take effect tomorrow. “This is as good as no notice being given,” said Low in a statement today.

“The sudden new natural gas tariff has disturbed the market equilibrium forcefully and resulted in an unanticipated cost increase,” he said.

He said manufacturers had repeatedly asked for proper notice because export orders were taken two to three months ahead. Now manufacturers had to absorb the cost increase in order to honour an estimated RM5 billion in orders taken before the announcement.

“As a result, Malaysia stands to lose an estimated RM47.2 million in foreign revenue, resulting from this sudden gas tariff increase over the next three months.”

Low said the new natural gas price was equivalent to a 5.37% increase for Tariff Category F.

Production cost would go up by US$0.30 (RM1.23) to US$0.80 (RM3.29) per 1,000 pieces of nitrile gloves and about US$0.35 (RM1.44) to US$0.85 (RM3.50) for latex gloves.

Instead of the cost being passed on to buyers, bringing extra revenue for Malaysia, now the buyers would gain for the next few months.

Low also complained that the Energy Commission of Malaysia was shoving a new “Third Party Access policy” down the throats of natural gas users and Gas Malaysia.

The new policy was not properly explained but the industry was expected to sign new gas supply agreements by Sept 30.

Low said manufacturers had been told that the gas price would increase tremendously when the gas market is deregulated on Jan 1.

“A good policy implemented in a haphazard manner will do more harm than bring its intended benefits,” said Low.