Sinopec's Great Wall Lubricating Oil is fighting hard to grow its share of the domestic high-quality lubes market.
Despite the arrival of global majors, such as Shell and ExxonMobil who are closing the gap on market share in the high-end lubes sector, Great Wall is apparently determined to fight its position in the high-value, high-end lubes market according to China Lubricant's Economic Correspondent.
With the ratio of imported brands to domestic high-quality brands shrinking from 1:9 to just 4:6, the Great Wall brand still continues to strengthen its own position in the market with overal product sales up 40% and high-grade lubes products 2.3 times higher than the previous year. In Q1, the company's cumulative sales had already seen a 38% improvement.
However, the company has warned that despite changing its strategy to meet the increased demand for higher quality lubes products, the whole domestic production market faces a tough challenge from the global majors who are apparently pursuing aggressive retail and distribution strategies.
China Lubricant's view is that Great Wall manufacturer, Sinopec, along with other domestic producers, remains overly focused on the OEM market, of which Great Wall currently holds a 90% domestic share. However Sinopec is moving to strengthen the Great Wall brand presence in the repair shop and workshop sectors as well as testing a direct consumer sales network.