Petronas Lubricants International on Wednesday announced the start of construction of a lubricant blending plant in Mumbai, saying it will use the facility to increase its share of the Indian market.
India is the worlds third-largest lubricant market, and the Malaysia-based company said it wants to capture 5 percent of the market by 2019.
“PLI has very aggressive ambitions to be amongst the world’s top lubricants players by 2019, Giuseppe Pedretti, the companys head of Asia, stated in a news release. India is a very important market for us in the Asia region. Therefore we have embarked on a solid growth plan to accelerate our business here in India, starting with investments into the new plant….
The plant is being built on a 25-acre site for a price tag of U.S. $50 million.
M.P. Singh, CEO of Petronas Lubricants India Pvt Ltd, said the company sees opportunity in the Indian market because of the countrys growing economy and its emerging middle class. He cited forecasts that lubricant demand there will rise at cumulative annual rates of 2.3 percent in coming years.
Pedretti added that PLI plans to significantly alter the way it works with distributors and retailers to market products to Indias High Street, but he did not offer details. The companys subsidiary in India was formed in 2006 and claims to have expanded sales by 40 percent in the past few years.