After two years, Asia’s largest refiner begins production at its Singapore plant.
In a bid to grow its lubricants business in Asia-Pacific, Sinopec has opened a new S$134m ($105m) lubricants production facility in Singapore. The plant, its first outside China, will produce lubes for use in machinery, automobiles, construction and shipping.
The new Sinopec Tuas plant Image: Xinhua/Then Chih Wey |
Sinopec, which recently ranked Fourth in the Fortune 500 list of global companies, sees the plant as a key part of its globalisation plan and may build more plants overseas in the future.
The Asian major is already in talks with Shell and Total to build and operate a shared lubricants park in Tuas, Singapore, where its current lubes facility is situated.
The facility will be built by Singapore Lube Park, a joint venture between Sinopec Lubricant (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Shell Eastern Petroleum Pte Ltd and Total Oil Asia Pacific Pte Ltd. It is scheduled to operate as a major hub serving the Asia-Pacific region.
Industry estimates suggest the Asia-Pacific region is the world’s fastest growing lubes market, accounting for almost 43% of global demand last year and is expected to consume 17m tons per year by 2017.
The plant, which has been two years in the making, will have an initial production capacity of 100,000 tons per year.