Delfin Group USA will invest $55 million in the 41.7 acre North Charleston, S.C., industrial site that it acquired for $20 million in late 2007 from Chevron. A division of Moscow-based Delfin Group Russia, the company plans to retrofit the existing infrastructure to support manufacturing of its automotive and industrial lubricants to serve both domestic and global markets.
Probably the earliest the expansion would start would be in the first quarter of 09, John Krug, vice president of Delfin site selection consultant Development Advisors, told Lube Report. I think to fully realize buildout at that facility, it will take the better part of 12 to 18 months. So well see some of what theyre doing push over into the following year from 2009 to 2010. The interesting thing about that site is that theres ample room there to do quite a bit more, whether storage tanks or you name it – theyve got some good space around, plenty of buffering, a lot of parking, and some vacant real estate thats part of that site.
Krug said the expansion involves modernizing existing assets at the site and adding additional new manufacturing and package processing lines. According to the Charleston Regional Development Alliance, Delfin employs 15 at the site now, and through the expansion will add 160 new jobs over the next three to four years. Most of those new jobs will be in production, and in package processing, he added.
The site has been in use as a gasoline or lube oil terminal since 1910, when it was initially operated by Texaco Petroleum Products. The plant became part of the Equilon Lubricants joint venture between Texaco and Shell in 1997, and in 2002 was part of Shell Oil Products US.
Shell in October 2006 exercised an option to sell the plant, which employed 78 at the time, to Chevron, which did not continue operations at the site. In June 2007, Chevron selected Colliers Keenan, which had sold a nearby industrial site, to broker the sale of the property.
According to Colliers Keenan, the site has a stated overall production capacity of 50 million gallons per year, with 45 percent bulk transferred via rail or truck, and 55 percent packaged products. It is located along three rail spurs and has frontage on the Port of Charleston shipping channel.