American lube additives maker Chevron Oronite selected United States-based Fluor Corp. to complete the front-end engineering and design of its manufacturing plant in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China, by the end of next year. Delayed from its original 2019 target, the plant will open first as a blending and shipping center in 2020, then expand into a component manufacturing facility in phases as regional demand grows. Oronite’s largest facility in Asia-Pacific, in Singapore, currently meets regional consumption of its additives, but it predicts that the new plant will be necessary to meet future demand as the market for high-quality lube formulations grows in China, where it has also set up a research and development lab.