Our Singapore plant, already the largest additives plant in the Asia Pacific region, was built to support the growing Asia Pacific market, said Andy Tugendhat, vice president of sales. The proposed project will help us meet the anticipated volume growth in the region.

The plans include growth in component manufacturing, blending and shipping capacity and overall infrastructure to increase total supply capability for the Asia-Pacific region.

Generally speaking, we expect continued growth in lubricant categories across the board in the Asia Pacific region, a Chevron Oronite spokesperson told Lube Report. China and India stand out due to the sheer size of those markets, but clearly there are many other markets in Asia Pacific where we believe lubricant additive demands will continue to grow. Our Singapore plant is well positioned to meet the needs of the markets throughout the region.

Walt Szopiak, regional general manager for manufacturing and supply, said, Numerous upgrading projects have been completed since the plants commissioning in 1999. These include debottlenecking of production units, blending and shipping facilities and supporting infrastructure along with new capacity additions for selected production units. When the planned expansion is completed, the Singapore plant capacity will effectively be doubled from its original size.

The Singapore plant occupies a 49-acre site on the Jurong Island chemical hub that is a source of feedstock and utilities. It features an advanced distributed control system. The laboratory monitors the quality of raw materials as well as finished products. Chevron Oronites plant also has a private jetty to accommodate vessels of up to 40,000 dead-weight tonnage.

The company also services customers in the Asia-Pacific region through a joint venture manufacturing plant in Chennai, India, as well as a blending plant in Omaezaki, Japan. Chevron Oronite has sales offices throughout the region, including in Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul and Mumbai.

Kline & Co.s Global Lubricant Additives 2010 study projects global lubricant additive consumption to grow at 3.2 percent per year to reach 4.3 million metric tons by 2015. In 2010, global lubricant additive consumption totaled an estimated 3.7 million tons valued at $10.3 billion.

Dispersants, viscosity index improvers and detergents were the top three function classes, Kline found, accounting for 68 percent of total consumption. The Chevron Oronite spokesperson confirmed that those are also the top three function classes in the Asia-Pacific region.

By lubricant category, additive consumption was highest for heavy duty motor oils (34 percent of total additive volume), passenger car motor oil (27 percent) and metalworking fluids (16 percent).