Russian lubricants marketer VMPAuto opened a small plant in the industrial sector of St. Petersburg in February.
The facility, located in near a port on the Gulf of Finland, makes grease for the automotive and machine-building sectors. For now it has capacity to produce 600 metric tons per year, but it was designed to allow expansion up to three reactors, which would increase capacity to 2,000 t/y.
Production is fully automated and requires just a control panel operator and a loader, who loads the raw materials and stacks the containers filled with the finished product.
VMPAuto issued a press release stating that the plant is highly automated. “One batch can now be produced in eight hours, whereas before we needed 24 to 48 hours.”
The plant’s technology is a collaboration between the company, the Machine-Building Academy and the Industry and Technology College in St. Petersburg.
Founded in 1996, the St. Petersburg-based VMPAuto produces Valera-branded greases, hydraulic oils, anti-corrosion sprays, cleaning detergents and pastes as well as automotive chemical products. Its greases are primarily used in heavy-duty trucks and machinery, motorcycles and bicycles, as well as for construction and general purposes.
The company primarily operates in the Russian market. Its largest customers are heavy-duty truck maker Kamaz and Tonar, one of the country’s largest manufacturers of trailer and semi-trailer equipment.
In 2019, VMPAuto produced 700 tons of finished greases. Russia consumes around 40,000 tons of greases annually.
