JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp., a Japanese petroleum giant, signed a memorandum of understanding to set up a joint venture with Indian lubricant manufacturer Tide Water Oil Co. Ltd.
The joint venture will be responsible for selling, marketing, distributing and manufacturing the Eneos brand of lubricants for cars in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. Primary clients will include Japanese original equipment manufacturers such as Toyota, Suzuki, Mitsubishi and Honda.
The companies will have equal shares in the joint venture, which will try to expand through the use of JX Nippon Oil & Energy formulary technology. JX Nippon Oil & Energy said that Indias current demand for lubricants is about the same as Japans, at around 2 million kiloliters per year, but the company expects Indias economic growth to continue and demand for lubricants to increase to 3 million kiloliters by 2020.
In its latest financial report released in February, the company said it plans to increase annual overseas sales of lubricants from 430,000 kiloliters in 2012 to 710,000 kiloliters in 2015 and 900,000 kiloliters in 2020.
A member of the Andrew Yule Group, Kolkata-based Tide Water Oil has been marketing Eneos lubricants through a technical collaboration with JX Nippon Oil & Energy since 1993. It is a major supplier of lubricants for leading two-wheeler companies in India like Hero MotoCorp, Honda Motorcycle and Scooters India, India Yamaha Motor, as well as other Japanese OEMs such as Kobelco Construction Equipment India Pte Ltd., and Kubota in India.