Market segments covered in the study include passenger cars, light commercial vehicles, heavy-duty vehicles and buses. The passenger car lubricant market is expected to show the largest growth, with a 4.5 percent year-on-year growth rate, Nikita Medvedev, RPIs senior analyst, told Lube Report on Tuesday. In the other segments, the demand growth rate could reach as much as 2 percent.

RPI expects the main lubricant demand growth drivers to be the expansion and changing mix of Russias vehicle fleet, as well as execution of a number of infrastructure and developmental projects. In regional terms, we found that the largest demand for automotive oils takes place in the Central, Volga and Siberian Federal Districts. These regions comprise around 60 percent of the total automotive lubricant demand in Russia, Medvedev said.

The region with the higher per capita consumption is the Far East Federal District, RPI said. This region consumes 5 tons of automotive lubricants per 1,000 people. In the remaining regions – Central, Northwestern, Southern, Siberian, Ural, Volga and North-Caucasian – this indicator stands at 2.5 to 3.5 tons of motor oil consumption per 1,000 people, the consultancy said in a news release.

Russias need for synthetic and semisynthetic lubricants is expected to rise, following the trend from the last few years, while its consumption of mineral lubes is poised to plunge further, according to RPI. This is related to the renewal of the countrys vehicle fleet that needs sophisticated and high-quality lubricating materials, the consultancy noted.

Medvedev pointed out that in 2014, synthetic finished products held a 29 percent market share, semisynthetics held a 30 percent share, and mineral oil-based products held a 41 percent share of the total Russian automotive lubricant market.

This year, we added a new section to the study that covers the assessment of the market related to the different motor oil viscosity indexes and their consumption by different vehicle segments and brands, Mededev indicated. For example, we found that 5W-40 and 10W-40 oils held a 56 percent share of the total passenger car motor oil market. Another example is that only two car brands – Frances Renault and Japans Nissan – accounted for a 70 percent share of Russias total consumption of 0W-30 oils.

For more information about the 100-page RPI study, available in Russian and English, or to purchase copies, see http://www.rpi-research.com/publications/detail.php?ID=54.