Q8Oils spent 80,000 (U.S. $136,000) to convert its Leeds, United Kingdom, location from lubricants blending to filling and storage.
The Antwerp, Belgium-based company discontinued blending at Leeds and reengineered the plant. That involved upgrading bulk storage tanks and tank gauging equipment, and installing new pipework and a new filling line, as well as converting vessels that were originally used for blending lubricants into additional storage tanks. The facility will now serve as a storage hub and filling location for bulk lubricants imported from its sister plant in Antwerp.
The U.K. is key … particularly at a time when it is emerging from the economic downturn faster than most of Europe, Q8Oils sales director Gianluca Fenaroli said in a recent press release. One of the main reasons Q8Oils decided to invest in reengineering the Leeds plant was to discontinue importing base oils and additives from mainland Europe.
The Leeds plant has stopped importing base oils and additives for blending lubricants, nearly all of which were imported by truck, Q8Oils brand and communications manager, Neil Grieve, told Lube Report. These same trucks will now be importing blended lubricants in bulk from the Antwerp plant. The bulk imports will be broken down into small bulk drops for Q8Oils U. K. customers, he continued, or used for filling intermediate bulk containers, barrels, pails, small bottles, and more at Leeds.
The company is also upgrading its Antwerp facility, which will have blending capacity of 125 million liters per year along with additional storage tanks for raw materials and finished lubricants. Everything is on schedule for being fully operational by Oct. 31, 2014, Grieve said. We are currently carrying out end-to-end testing, which involves pumping product around the factory and testing all interfaces, which include both [information technology systems] and hardware.
Q8Oils is Kuwait Petroleum International Lubricants, the lubricants division of Kuwaits state-owned oil company, Kuwait Petroleum Corp.