Brazils lubricant oils market reached 1.37 million tons in 2013, which represents growth of 8.3 percent over 2012. The numbers surprised mainly because of the poor national gross domestic product growth of 2.3 percent. However, some important segments showed excellent development and can account for these unexpected figures.
Greases performed a little lower, with demand growing 3.6 percent to 56,000 tons in 2013.
According to research done by Rio de Janeiro-based consultancy Agncia Virtual, which specializes in lubricants and publishes Lubes em Foco Magazine, in a partnership with the Brazilian Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Institute – IBP, this growth maintains the trend observed since 2009. According to Agncia Virtual, the Brazilian lube oils market increased its volume by 25 percent from 2009 to 2013.
The research took into account the performance of the main players, figures from the National Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency – ANP, the rerefining industry and the internal database of Lubes em Foco.
Brazils economy in 2013 has shown some interesting factors, like the records in agricultural machinery production (which grew 20 percent over 2012) and in automotive vehicles production (up 10 percent). Besides that, Brazil has initiated and resumed significant infrastructure works, to be prepared for the sports events that are coming – Soccer World Cup in 2014 and Olympic Games in 2016. The impact of these factors was not so big for the national GDP, but they have had a good effect in the lubricants market which is directly related to them.
In terms of finished lubricant market share in Brazil, Petrobras continues to lead the ranking with 20.5 percent, followed by Ipiranga with 13.7 percent, Mobil with 13.4 percent, Shell with 11 percent, Chevron Lubricants with 9.7 percent, Petronas with 7.3 percent, and more 130 other players with the remaining 24.4 percent.
The base oil market has followed the trend, with an impressive increase of 11.1 percent over 2012, reaching 1.34 million tons last year. Local production, including the rerefining industry, was responsible for less than 60 percent, almost all API Group I.
Brazil imported 541,000 tons of base oils in 2013, volume growth of about 7.8 percent over 2012. The import market in 2013 was valued around U.S. $567 million. Most of the imported base oil (58 percent) came from the U.S., followed by Italy with 15 percent, South Korea with 11 percent, and others.
Pedro Nelson Belmiro, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is director of Agncia Virtual and editor of Lubes em Foco.