Total will invest 30 million (U.S. $42.3 million) in a 200,000 metric tons per year lubricant blending plant in Tianjin, China, to open in late 2012.
The facility in the northern China coastal city will be wholly owned and operated by Total (Tianjin) Manufacturing, a new Total subsidiary in China.
The blending plant will produce lubricants for the factory fill and after sales markets of its numerous [original equipment manufacturer] local and international partners, Total (China) Investment Co. Ltd. spokeswoman Vivien Liu told Lube Report. According to Liu, the Tianjin plant will produce a full range of mineral, semi-synthetic and synthetic lubricants for the passenger car, bus, motorcycle, heavy duty and earthmoving markets, along with industrial lubricants, marine lubricants and greases.
Liu noted the plant will be one of Totals biggest production units in the region. The Tianjin plant has a strategic importance for Total in China and in the Asia Pacific region, Liu said. It will as such serve export markets for Total affiliates as well as the Chinese market.
The new investment in Tianjin marks a strategic move to expand Totals existing lubricant manufacturing in Guangzhou and Zhengjiang in Jiangsu, to cover the high-potential provinces in north and west of China, said Thierry Pfimlin, senior vice president of Total Refining and Marketing for Asia Pacific.
Paris-based Total has 30 subsidiaries and 4,000 employees in China, where it has been present for 30 years. In refining and marketing, Total cooperates with partners PetroChina and Sinochem in the West Pacific Petrochemical Co., Chinas first refinery with foreign investment. Total and Sinochem are working together to build and operate two retail networks of 200 stations and 300 stations, respectively, in the north and east parts of China.