Petronas Lubricants International (PLI), manufacturing and marketing arm of PETRONAS, the Malaysian national oil corporation, will invest $150 million, or about Rs.975 crore, to set up a lubricant blending plant with 110 million litres capacity in Patalganga, on the outskirts of Mumbai, and a technology centre for motorcycle engine oil, company officials said.
"Currently, the 10th largest lubricant brand in the world, India can be a key engine for growth in future for Petronas", said Giuseppe D'Arrigo, group CEO at Petronas Lubricant International.
Petronas has said it aims to become a top five player in the world in five years. We have been amongst the fastest growing brand globally. Even in India we hope to do better than competition, said D'Arrigo.
He said immediate focus is on operationalising the new factory, which is expected to go on stream in the first quarter of 2018. DArrigo said the new plant in India should attain full capacity in three to four years.
He said the company would focus on value selling. India is market for price, but more and more sophistication is taking place, people will look for value in the future and that is where Petronas will play. Better products and better value to customers, he said.
According to the company, Petronas Lubricant currently sells about 30 million litres a year in the country, accounting for just 3% of its global volume of about 1 billion litres. DArrigo said the firm is eyeing volumes of 1.5-1.7 billion litres globally by 2020-2021 and that by then share from India would cross 5%.
