Industry News
India Remains a Bright Spot
India is already the world’s thirdlargest fnished lubricants market, and it holds great potential for marketers due to its fragmented nature, low barriers to entry and appetite for more players. The global lubricants industry is passing through a phase of little to no growth, but India remains a bright spot due to its steadily growing demand that offers opportunities despite the market’s complexities. India has more than 35 well-organized, established companies and over 500 regional players, but suppliers can still boost their growth prospects by opting for co-branding with original equipment manufacturers, increasing distribution channels and communicating with consumers through relevant brand strategy.
There’s a huge growth opportunity for both industrial & automotive lubes due to increasing population of both humans and vehicles in India. Challenges that arose due to the country’s new Goods and Services tax regime and India’s plan to jump from the Bharat Stage IV automobile emissions standard directly to BS VI in 2020 also offers huge growth potential to the companies that redesign their supply chain management and launch their products before the implementation of BS VI standard in the country. BS VI is equivalent to the European Union’s Euro 6 standard and is expected to require engine design changes that require more advanced engine oils.
The Indian automobile industry – which includes passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, three wheelers and two wheelers – produced 21.4 million vehicles in April-December 2017, up 11 percent from the same period last year, according to the latest data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.
According to the latest 2018 global data show, India has overtaken Germany and has become the fourth largest automobile market in the world. Government is focusing more on the infrastructure, stricter tabs overloading ban and macroeconomic environment management so that our sales volumes remain strong and stable during this year.
Industry offcials said that India’s two-wheeler market – which includes motorcycles, scooters and mopeds – has already surpassed China’s and will continue growing as vehicle ownership rises. The two-wheeler segment accounts for about 80 percent of India’s automobile market.
Used Lube Oil Centres to be Setup in India
Public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) are giving shape to an ambitious plan to move used lubricant oil handling in the country from the existing, largely informal sector, to a formal set-up focussed on environmentfriendly recycling. The aim is to facilitate an ecosystem where handling of the used oil, which is a hazardous waste, is undertaken in a scientifc manner. At the heart of this joint approach of Indian Oil Corporation, HPCL and BPCL, is the larger government mandate of utilising 25% re-refned base oil for lubricants by 2023. Given the country’s status as a net importer of base oil — raw material for lubricants —the re-refne and re-reuse plan is expected to lead to substantial foreign exchange savings, conserve resources that are otherwise used for burning and importantly, protect the environment.
In a frst step, the three entities have decided to engage consultants to guide them on setting up used lubricating oil collection centres on a pan-India basis. Besides assisting in establishing the facilities, the consultants would also be required to suggest the standard operating procedures to run them.
This is likely to be a phased program where the frst phase would comprise of base lining current scenario of lubricants disposal mechanism, problem identifcation, regulatory challenges, comparison with other geographies/ sectors/ similar works with respect to best practices in the industry. This shall also focus on prioritizing identifed ideas; developing detailed design/ business case, strategies for identifed ideas and implementation plan; and then aligning stakeholders on implementation based on detailed design/business case. The second phase would focus on setting up of used lubricating oil collection centres in select region/geography based on study/ strategies identifed in Phase 1.
SERVO Cement Meet-2018
Cementing the Future with Servo
SERVO Cement meet-2018 brought together all stakeholders of cement manufacturing industry such as participants from Cement Industries from Northern and western India & OEM. It was organised on 16th March, 2018 at Udaipur.
Sh. K L Murthy (Executive Director Lubes), Sh. Ravindra Garg (Executive Director RSO), Sh. Amitabh Akhauri (Chief General Manager-Lubes) & Sh. Jagdish Toshniwal (Manging Director, Wonder Cement) inaugurated the one day event by lighting the lamp.
Servo cement brochure was launched by dignitaries.
Mr K.L.Murthy welcomed all participants and discussed role of cement sectors in infrastructure development in India and increasing demand of cement due to government infrastructure related schemes. He also discussed briefly about role of lubrication in cement industry and cementing future with SERVO. Mr Garg emphasized the need of such events to improve bonding of IOCL with its esteemed customers.
Program included panel discussion on present scenario in cement and related Lubrication Industry and three technical sessions, which included 17 technical presentations from cement industries, OEM, IOCL R&D and IOCL TS team. Sh. R. Suresh (Ex-Executive Director (Lube Technology), IOCL acted as moderator during plenary session and following three technical sessions were chaired by Sh. Y K Mathur (JK Cement Ltd.), Sh. Amitabh Akhauri (IOCL) and Sh. A.K. Dhar (Udaipur Cement ) respectively.
A total of 150 participants from Cement industry and OEMs attended the meet. The cement companies represented were JK Cement, JK Lakshmi Cement, Nuvoco Vistas, Ambuja Cement, Ultratech Cement, Shree Cement, Nirmax Cement, India Cement, Wonder Cement, Udaipur Cement, ACC, Binani Cement, Birla Cement. The OEM participation was from Loesche, Elecon, Sadvik, Evonik,USA, CC Jensen Filtration, Denmark.
