During the first six months of this year, 22 lubricant marketing companies signed a letter of conformance to confirm compliance with the European Engine Lubricants Quality Management Systems requirements, compared to 26 in the previous 12 months.
ATIEL, the European lubricants industrys technical association, administers the system on behalf of the automobile, lubricant and lubricant additive segments.
New signatories in 2016 include lubricant companies based in Argentina, China, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and Thailand, ATIEL said in a recent news release.
The system was developed jointly by ACEA (the European Automobile Manufacturers Association), ATC (the Technical Committee of Petroleum Additive Manufacturers in Europe) and ATIEL. It covers various quality standards, test methods and procedures, together with industry codes of practice and the requirements of the ACEA European Oil Sequences.
ACEA requested that each company signing the letter of conformance declare a list of all lubricant product brands that are covered by the letter, to provide greater transparency and assurance for consumers. Lubricant marketers will be required to provide that information to ATIEL as part of the renewal process for their letters of compliance later this year.
The current list of lubricant marketers that have signed a letter of conformance may be viewed online here.