Petronas to Begin Production at Indian Plant

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Malaysias Petronas Lubricants International will begin production at its lubricant blending plant in India by the end of this year, the company told Lube Report.

The U.S. $50 million plant was constructed on 25 acres of land in Patalganga and has production capacity of about 97,000 metric tons per year.

Production trials are currently in progress, and we expect to start commercial production by end of December 2018, Mohd Khalid Mohamed Latif, head of Asia Pacific at Petronas Lubricants International, told Lube Report.

The new plants blending technology can produce all categories of automotive engine and gear oils, as well as transmission and hydraulic fluids, he added.

Petronas Lubricants International aims to triple its share in Indias lubricant market by 2022. PLI has partnerships with original equipment manufacturers in India such as Tata Motors Ltd, Fiat Group, New Holland, Doosan Group and Maruti Suzuki India. PLI is a subsidiary of state-owned oil company Petronas.

With our Group I, II and III base oils, we are able to provide lubricants for diesel engines, passenger cars, motorcycles as well as off-road vehicle segments, he added.

India’s lubricant market is estimated at approximately 2.8 million tons this year, according to Shailendra Gokhale, managing partner of Rosefield DAA International Consultancy, a lubricant specialist consultancy based in Mumbai.

The company forecast growth of about 4.3 percent with motorcycle oils, heavy-duty engine oils and high-performance lubricants and greases showing significant growth. India is the third largest lubricant market with the share of automotive lubricant at 54 percent, industrial lubricant at 25 percent and process oils at 21 percent, he said.

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