Total Lubricants opened a new technical center for Asia Pacific in India, including pilot labs that will develop new lubricants formulated especially for the region.
The 600 square meter facility will have state-of-the-art equipment to focus on four main business lines, which are lubricants, bitumens, fuel additives and special fluids, Francis Jan, senior vice president of Total Specialties, said in a statement. Besides developing products for future transmission technology, the facility will also have pilot labs for Asian products and be equipped to test base oils and additives to meet Asian requirements.
Total said that sales of two-wheel vehicles such as motorcycles rose 14 percent in the first three months of 2012 to more than 13 million in India alone. The technical center has been working on developing lubricants to improve fuel economy for two-wheel vehicles. One is a motorcycle lubricant that could withstand an engines high RPM and handle the wear protection needed by the gearbox, the company said. The other product is a rust preventive lubricant for metal that Total aims to launch in Asia.
The Mumbai technical center will continue developments launched and supervised by Totals worldwide R&D centers, such as oil for new powertrains, emulsions and polymer modified bitumen. The Mumbai technical center will further reinforce current research and development efforts at Totals research center in France. Depending on requirements, the center in Mumbai will collaborate with Totals R&D centers in France and external testing agencies to offer advanced solutions to customers.
The new three-story technical facility will also host the first Total Anac (abbreviation for analysis compared) lab outside of Europe. Anac is an oil condition monitoring service that helps customers diagnose their engines and equipment parts to offer recommendations for better equipment maintenance.
Francois Dehodencq, senior vice president of Total Supply and Marketing Asia Pacific, stated that the Asia-Pacific market for Totals lubricants is strong, as a third of the companys volumes is sold in the region.
The new technical center reflects Totals recognition of the rapidly developing Asian markets, especially India and China, said Dehodencq. It brings us closer to our customers and enables our affiliates to provide faster response to their needs, he noted. The center will also provide technical support to key industrial customers and original equipment manufacturers.