Indian Lubricant Industry Smooth Ride Ahead

Balmer Lawrie- Fuchs Ltd (BLF), a joint venture between Balmer Lawrie & Co Ltd, Indias leading company in greases and specialty lubricants and Fuchs Petrolub AG, Germany, world leader in specialty lubricants, has already established its presence by its cost-effectiveness and competitiveness.

BLF, reflecting the business philosophy of the promoters offers to the Indian market a comprehensive range of industrial and automotive lubricants incorporating the state-of-the-art technology.

The company brings to India for the first time, the world-renowned Titan and Silkocence range of premium automotive oils, Century mining lubricants, Ceplattyn cement plant lubricants, Corrosion preventive oils, Ratak Elowe and Ecoform metalworking oils, Lubrodal forging lubricants and several more international brand leaders and cent condition monitoring services.

 

The company also markets the full range of Bamerol high performing greases and lubricants from Balmer & Lawrie. The global package of customer services, technical support and innovative products offered by the Fuchs group is now available in India through the company.

The lubricant industry witnessed a flood of entrants since liberalisation with MNCs like Shell, Mobil, Gulf, Caltex etc,. Some of these oil majors even tied up or renewed old ties with public sector undertakings, thereby gaining the advantage of distribution and infrastructural edges. Today after almost four years since their entry many are still jostling to maintain their presence in the market, where some of the companies are rethinking their strategy.

However, Gulf Oil, the first MNC to start operations in the liberalised regime, has been growing at a rate of about 25 per cent in the Indian context, proving a success.

To consolidate its position, the company has set up a state-of-the-art 75,000 tpa Lube oil plant to begin operations at Silvasssa, an industrial zone promoted by the government with tax benefits which obviously is an added benefit to the Indian consumer.

Lube oil sales depend mainly on the marketing strategies with four regional offices, 85 stock points, 1,100 dealers and nearly over 10,000 retail outlets, enabling to notch the second rank in the network.

Gulf Oil seems to have set their targets clear to be a major player in the lube industry like other listed companies namely Castrol and Tide Water.

Mr K.N. Venkatasubramanian has taken over as the head of the Energy Hub, special sector identified by the Hinduga group for substantial investments, heading the Gulf Oil India Ltd as its vice chairman cum managing director.

He is one of the distinguished personnels in the industry who had held esteemed positions in STC, IPCL and recently retired as chairman of Indian Oil Corporation..