Fuchs, Shell and Evonic are all planning expansion across Australasia.
German additives specialist, Fuchs, is to set to open an A$4.5m (US$4.1m) warehouse in Melbourne. The facility is part of the company's Australian expansion and will add to its Asia Pacific operations.
The warehouse, which will cover a 5,000 square metre area, will join the company's 12 existing distribution sites in Australia and New Zealand, including a lubricants research and development centre in Sunshine (25 minutes west of Melbourne City centre launched in 2011. An additional A$1.5 million will be allocated to boost capacity and efficiency at the Sunshine site.
Another German specialty chemical manufacturer, Evonik, has announced that it is to double the capacity of its oil additives plant in Jurong Island, Singapore, to meet increasing demand for high-performance lubricants with higher additive content in Asia. The plant is due to be completed in early 2015 and will be the largest of the company's production sites.
Meanwhile Shell has begun the construction of its first plant in Jakarta, Indonesia. The $200 million lubricant plant, announced late last year, has an annual capacity of 120,000 tons of lubricants and is a response to rising car sales in the country.