Valvoline Inc. has resumed construction of a lubricants plant in Zhangjiang, China, after suspending the project in February amidst the country’s coronavirus outbreak.
In a March 24 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it also largely ended work-from-home protocols at its China offices early this month.
China’s government has in recent weeks begun gradually loosening restrictions that had forced a wide variety of businesses to close.
The Zhangjiang plant will be Valvoline’s first lube blending facility in China and will amount to a ¥443 million (then U.S. $70 million) investment, according to a statement by the company in 2018. That would make it the company’s single largest blending plant investment worldwide.
Located on about 20 acres, the 80,000 square meter plant was at the time expected to begin production by the end of 2020, with an annual production capacity of 103,000 metric tons.
Currently the company uses a variety of supply points in China, including local toll blenders and imports from various Valvoline plants.