The Tanzania Bureau of Standards has intensified efforts to rid the East African country of substandard lubricants but has more work to do, some experts say.
On Feb. 1, 2012, the bureau implemented the Pre-Shipment Verification of Conformity (PVoC) regulation in partnership with three global inspection and certification services firms: SGS, Intertek, and Bureau Veritas. The regulation mandates that the three inspection firms certify that every lubricant product, including base oils and finished lubes, complies with the Tanzanian national standards before being imported into the country.
According to the SGS website, the regulations objective is to protect Tanzanians against substandard products that can endanger public health, safety and the environment, and to protect local manufacturers against unfair competition from imported products which do not comply with national standards.
The three certification and inspection firms are located in every part of the world. So, it will be difficult for importers of substandard lubricant products to ship them to Tanzania, said Roida Andusamile, public relations officer for the Tanzania Bureau of Standards. We have also intensified the destination inspection of local manufacturers to ensure they comply with Tanzanian national standards.
The bureau has recorded successes in the war on substandard lubes, according to Andusamile. To some extent the PVoC program has reduced the amount of substandard lubes being imported to Tanzania and we hope to reduce it more.
However, TBS needs to do more to sustain the war on substandard lubes, according to Irfan Khan, general manager for the Tanzania plant of Germany-based General Petroleum. Khan told Lube Report that the regulation is effective but emphasized that the people who import substandard products dont follow rules and regulations. Substandard lubes are smuggled through the Zanzibar channel by briefcase businesses, he said. They dont have offices; they are not traceable and they are making a lot of money.
George Morvey of Kline and Co. consultancy concurs. Counterfeiting of lubricants is essentially limited to fast-moving products like engine oil and motorcycle oil, and less to industrial products like turbine oil that is typically purchased in bulk or large capacity drums. Whats essential to the success of the PVoC regulation, he said, is that industry and government must dedicate the resources and finances to stay one step ahead of this illegal activity.
