Hitching its cart to Asias steadily growing lubricant market, Degussa AG said it will build a 10 million plant in Singapore for its Specialty Acrylics Business Units RohMax Oil Additives business line. Officials said the facility is scheduled to open in 2007.
In areas with developed economies – such as the United States and Western Europe – lubricant demand is barely growing, in some cases even shrinking. Demand in Asia, paced by burgeoning economies in China and India, is growing at annual rates in the mid single digits.
If you look at the lubricant industry worldwide, 50 percent of the growth over the next 10 years will be in Asia, RohMax Managing Director Dirk Reese told Lube Report yesterday. Clearly it makes sense to be in this region.
Degussa said it will invest more than 10 million (U.S. $13.2 million) to build the plant. Officials said it will employ 50 to 60 people and will make RohMaxs full range of products, including pour-point depressants and viscosity index improvers based onpolymethacrylate chemistry.
RohMax currently supplies Asia from plants in Europe and North America. Officials said a plant in Singapore will simplify logistics and allow quicker response times to customers. They noted that the company is also building a technical service center in Shanghai.
Degussa Management Board Chairman Utz-Hellmuth Felcht said the parent company has adopted a strategy of expanding in Asia, setting a goal for the region to account for 25 percent of turnover in the medium term. Reese said RohMax has a similar target.
Degussa is based in Dusseldorf, Germany, and had sales of 11.4 billion in 2003.