India is importing enormous volumes of base oils, and those imports are helping the market to raise the quality of its finished lubricants.

China will continue to tighten regulations limiting emission of air pollutants, creating challenges for automakers and lubricant suppliers alike, an official from CNPC told an industry conference in Beijing last month.

China Rerun Chemical Group reported sharp improvements in sales and profits for the first half of its fiscal year. Gulf Oil Corp. Ltd. said profits for its lubricants business were flat for the year ended March 31.

A provincial court in India has approved Gulf Oil Corp.s decision to carve its lubricants operations into a separate business.

Malaysia's Hyrax Oil will set up a lubricant blending plant in Sri Lanka with state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corp.

New vehicle sales in India rose 3.5 percent in the fiscal year ended March 31, the Indian Society of Automobile Manufacturers reported last month. But it took a healthy increase in demand for scooters to offset declines in sales of other types of vehicles.