Pertamina continues to working to expand lubricant sales overseas, with particular attention to Australia and Thailand. The Indonesia company recently contracted distributors in both countries, markets where it has made previous pushes.
In Thailand, Pertamina announced March 8 that it has signed Iyara Energy Group Co. to distribute lubes in the two-wheeler segment. Iyara is Pertamina’s third distributor in the country; the other two supply lubricants to the four-wheeler and industrial segments.
Pertamina has been in Thailand since early 2015 when it bought a 75% stake in Amaco, a lubricant blender.
“Thailand is a country with a growing and attractive lubricant market,” PT Pertamina Lubricants Director of Sales and Marketing Andria Nusa said in a written statement. “As a parent, we continue to encourage PLT [Pertamina Lubricants Thailand] to be more aggressive in the midst of intense competition.”
On March 22 the state-owned Indonesian oil company said March 22 that it agree for Business Auto Solutions Pty to carry its products to automobile workshops in Australia and New Zealand.
In contrast to some Asian markets, which are growing a healthy clips, lubricant demand in Australia has roughly plateaued, but it draws interest from companies in the industry because it is still a large market and, being developed, it offers reasonable profit margins.
In a ceremony commemorating the deal, Indonesian officials said that products from their country are becoming more widely accepted in Australia.
The agreement with BAS comes just four months after Pertamina contracted HLT Australia Pty. to distribute lubricants to Australia’s mining and transportation segments in the states of Victoria and Western Australia.
Pertamina has been making a public push to expand overseas since 2016 when it announced that it had growth aspirations that could no longer be met with a focus on its domestic market. Pertamina has long been by far the largest lube supplier in the archipelago. A year later the company said it would use its Thailand subsidiary as a launchpad for expansion into Indochina while also targeting markets such as Australia, Papua New Guinea and India.
The company is now one of the world’s 20 largest lube suppliers.