The expansion would take place on the 200-acre site in Dazhaoying Township where Richful already operates a lubricant additive factory. The company has submitted the environmental impact statement draft for public comment to the Xinxiang County Development and Reform Commission.

For purposes of environmental permitting, Richful said the project is categorized as a reconstruction and that it will install or modify equipment for high-efficiency production, solar power generation, storage tanks and product testing.

Richful, which is based in Xinxiang, conducted an initial public stock offering in 2020 that raised ¥1.1 billion. A year later it announced a separate project to build a 150,000 t/y additives plant. The company has cited the Chinese government’s urging for a variety of domestic industries to develop their own technological and production ability in order to reduce reliance on foreign suppliers – both because of supply chain disruptions that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic and because of growing trade friction, especially with the United States and Europe.

Richful has said it aims to rapidly increase its scale, improve its competitiveness and ability to service customers and fully participate in the supply chain reconstruction process of international and domestic lubricant companies, including more substitution of domestic products for imports.

Richful’s current facility there has capacity to produce about 100,000 metric tons per year of additive components and 15,000 t/y of packages.