Castrol India has closed one of its oldest production plants in Southern India as a result of increased costs.
The company, which claims a market share of around 10% of India's total lubes market, made the closure effective at the beginning of August only days after announcing the news to the Mumbai Stock Exchange.
The Tondiarpet Plant, sited in Chennai in India's Tamil Nadu State, first began production in 1962 with an annual capacity of 48,000kl of mainly automotive lubricants. However, actual production was only 28,000kl and, with the high price of base oil, production had fallen significantly as costs rose in 2011.
Tondiarpet is one of only four blending plants operated by Castrol in India, the other three being in the East and West of the country. Staff at the plant will be offered voluntary redundancy or other jobs where possible. The fate of the plant itself, including machinery and some Castrol-owned land, will be decided at a future date.