Technical Papers

The Global Lubricants Additives Market and its Regional Characteristics

Abstract:

The ongoing globalization of the automotive industry is leading major OEMs to move into countries with low labor cost and high growth potential. New production plants for cars and trucks are now mostly built in Eastern Europe, Latin America, China and India. These plants not only produce vehicles for the local markets but also for Western Europe, North America, the Middle East and Africa.  

In the wake of this shift in production sites, the lubricant industry faces the challenge to provide lubricants for both the factory and service fill needs of these new vehicles.  As a consequence the automotive lubricant market has become increasingly complex and global. The additive industry has had to adjust in terms of product offering, production and logistics to enable oil blenders to market high performance lubricants in areas that were, until recently, satisfied with lower quality lubricants.   

Lubricant companies are thus confronted in many countries with a vehicle park that spans an ever wider range of lubrication requirements. And while the factory fill business is becoming more global, the factory fill lubricant formulations will still remain very regional. Reasons for this include climatic conditions, consumer habits and education, level of environmental awareness, base oil availability, import restrictions and many others.  These differences will call for specific additives that are optimized for these local markets. This presentation identifies some of the elements that will influence the additive business in terms of performance, logistics, production and registration.