Indonesia is writing a national standard for lubricants and plans to implement it in the near future, according to a member of the Association of Lubricant Distributors, Importers & Manufacturers, a trade group in the country. The government hopes the standard will restrain the flow of imports and reduce the volume of substandard lubes.
The government is implementing the Indonesian National Standard very soon, Edmond Widjaja, director of PT Nusaraya Putramandiri, one of the countrys larger independent lube blenders, said during an interview. I think it will be done next year.
[Details are] not yet [ready]. But we just had discussions with the Ministry of Industry, and they confirmed SNI will be implemented soon, he added. SNI is the acronym for Indonesian National Standard.
SNI is only applicable for lubricants sold in Indonesia, not those produced locally for export. It is being formulated by a technical committee with advice from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources and the Ministry of Industry. The National Standardization Agency of Indonesia would be responsible for enforcing the standard.
SNI in general is supported by the President of Indonesia and was proposed a long time ago, Widjaja said. SNI for lubricants was thrown in the spotlight after data showed an increase in imported lubricants over the years. And also an increase in fake lubricants.
According to the Ministry of Industry, the portion of imported lubricants in the market jumped 50 percent between 2010 and 2013, from 200,000 kl to 300,000 kiloliters. Total domestic consumption for lubricants was 850,000 kl in 2013.
I think about 35 percent of lubricants are still imported, Widjaja said. Local blenders will not be that worried about the Asean Economic Community as current regulations are already very loose on imports. That is the reason for the high number of imports. On the other hand, local blenders see [creation of the] AEC as an opportunity to put pressure on the government to implement SNI.
SNI is a series of standards nationally applicable in Indonesia. The idea of a national standard for lubricants was proposed in 2005. Recently, part nine of the proposed SNI for Lubricating oils of industrial hydraulic type anti-corrosionwas revised in May this year.
Member states of Asean are establishing AEC to eliminate barriers within the 10-nation zone to trade of goods and services, investments, flow of capital and skilled labor.