LSCs blending plant in Jamaica can produce a full line of passenger car motor oil, heavy-duty diesel engine oil, gear oil, hydraulic oil, gear oil, automatic transmission fluid, small engine and specialty industrial products.

We see Jamaica and the Caribbean/Latin America region as a strategic opportunity for LSC, LSC President and CEO Sydney Thwaites told Lube Report. Several major oil blending facilities have been closed in the region, and we believe that presents an opportunity for LSC. The fact that we have several customers that market products in the region allows us to support existing customers in those markets. From our facilities on the West Coast, we get to the Western ports in Latin America effectively, but this facility will help us get to Eastern ports more effectively. We will be exporting from Jamaica to other markets in the region as well.

The companys facility in Jamaica became fully operational in March 2015. Our current facility is in May Pen, Clarendon, but we expect to expand to Kingston shortly, Thwaites said.

LSCs largest blending tanks at the facility each have a capacity of 40,000 gallons, he said, so the company can make production batches up to 40,000 gallons in size.

Thwaites said the facility has the full support of LSCs infrastructure in the United States, and uses the same high quality raw materials used in the U.S. Based in Pico Rivera, Calif., LSC has four blending plants and a distribution center in Southern California. The Jamaica facilitys local management team is headed by Neil Crooks, managing director, with the full support of LSCs U.S. management team.

He said the Jamaica facility has a new small packaging line and fills 250 milliliter to 5 liter packages, in addition to large pack sizes such as pails, drums and totes.

Thwaites noted that he is originally from Jamaica and is familiar with the market and business climate there as well as having existing relationships.