Seeking to position itself as a business that helps customers save energy, SK Lubricants announced last week that it will change its name to SK Enmove, effective Dec. 1.
The move appears to be part of an effort to position the company as a sustainable business that can help customers become more sustainable.
“We will accelerate the Green transformation by strengthening existing businesses that focus on the high-quality premium market because they can bring high profits in the long term and stably, while also early settling down new businesses such as lubricants for electric vehicles and thermal management,” an unidentified official said in a Nov. 21 news release.
Seoul-based SK Lubricants is the world’s leading supplier of API Group III base stocks and is part of South Korea’s second-largest chaebol, SK Group, which owns operations in industries ranging from oil refining and chemicals, to information technology and communications technology, semiconductors and logistics.
In 2021 the group sold 40% of SK Lubricants to IMM Private Equity, an investment firm based in Seoul.
The company has jumped on the sustainability bandwagon the past year, touting initiatives that improve the sustainability of its own operations and that help customers to do likewise. It launched lubricants that it claims to be carbon neutral, ramped up its use of recycled plastics and joined a government project to spur used lubricant rerefining in South Korea.
The new name is a combination of “en” – which refers to environmental, enabling and ensuring – and “move” for movement. The news release about the name change said the company will continue to focus on premium base stocks while also expanding into new businesses. The businesses that it names are not far afield from the lubricants industry. It cited moves that it has already made into lubricants for electric vehicles and thermal management fluids for EVs and data centers.