Conventional mineral base oils have experienced a slight decline in use, falling to 85.8% from 86.4% among those companies that report to the NLGI annual grease production survey. Semi-synthetic base oil usage remained relatively unchanged. Biobased base oils declined for a second consecutive year.
Over the past five years, China, North America and Europe have been the primary users of synthetic base oils. Among these, China has shown the strongest growth. Europe continues to be the largest user of bio-based oils, although usage is also declining.
Also similar to lubricating oils, the use of synthetic, semi-synthetic and bio-based base stocks has continued apace in greases, driven by user demand and legislation.*
Regional Grease Production Trends
China remains the world’s largest grease producer by volume, although reported output declined in 2024. The country’s economy has underperformed over the past two years, reflecting weakening domestic demand, the collapse of the real estate sector and lingering post-pandemic effects. These factors likely contributed to lower grease production. In addition, China’s domestic grease industry is maturing, with producers increasingly reporting actual output rather than installed capacity, according to industry sources.
India, China’s primary economic rival in Asia, continues to record growth in grease production. While India’s performance appears strong in aggregate terms, structural challenges such as weak private-sector investment and low per-capita income may constrain long-term industrial growth and limit sustained increases in grease consumption.
North America has experienced a steady decline in grease production over the past decade. Similarly, after peaking in 2018, European grease production has reverted to levels last seen approximately 10 years ago. Most other regions reported either flat or declining grease output in 2024, indicating broad-based pressure on global volumes.
Thickener Market
Since Clarence Earl patented a simple lithium soap thickener in the 1940s, lithium has been stalwart in grease formulations. It’s a jack of all trades that gets the job done. Cheap, abundant, water resistant and performs well at higher temperatures.
Despite ongoing pressure on lithium demand from electric vehicle batteries and other competing uses, lithium and lithium complex greases remained the most widely used thickener types in 2024. Lithium greases accounted for 38.3% of global production, while lithium complex greases represented 18.6%. Combined, these two categories exceeded total production volumes of all other thickener types.
However, global production of both lithium grease types continued to decline, falling by 0.8% for lithium greases and 3.8% for lithium complex greases. This trend reflects a gradual shift toward alternative thickener systems, particularly calcium-based greases, changing technical requirements and potential regulatory pressure under the European Union’s REACh framework.
Calcium sulfonate greases recorded global growth of 7.7%, with strong contributions from North America, China and Europe. All regions except India participated in this increase, underscoring the growing acceptance of calcium sulfonate formulations in heavy-duty and industrial applications.
Anhydrous calcium greases declined sharply, down 14.2% globally, largely due to a 57-million-kilogram reduction in China. In contrast, Europe reported growth in this category.
Calcium hydrated grease production increased modestly worldwide, although long-term production trends remain inconsistent across regions.
Polyurea greases, following several years of growth led by China, declined slightly in 2024. The decrease was primarily driven by lower output in China, Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
Lithium calcium greases accounted for 2.3% of total global production, although this figure may be understated due to incomplete reporting from China.
* The NLGI survey reflects market trends by extrapolating data from a growing number of participants, rising to 248 reporting grease plants in 2024 from 232.