A Lubricants Giant is Born

The first bottles are rolling off the line at Total’s largest lubricants plant in the world.
Based in Singapore, the facility has just opened after 19 months of construction.
It’s the product of a complex and demanding project.
Ultimately, the plant will produce 310,000 metric tons per year.
Yet it only covers 5.3 hectares, four times less than certain European sites.

Subramaniyam Peddiraju, Project Manager, Total

“The biggest challenge - and the most interesting one - was to construct the largest plant for the group in a limited space. We had to redesign our production building so we wanted to have two layers of production. We have the first floor and the second floor, where we do the blending and the filling operations.”

Optimizing space in record time, and also improving the site’s productivity thanks to leading-edge equipment, from quality control to the latest generation blending vessels.

As a result, production time has been cut in half.

This means products will be brought to market more quickly, particularly since the jetty provides direct sea access.
This is a major advantage for a plant located in the world’s second-largest port and designed to produce a third of Total’s marine lubricants.

The rest will be for industrial and automotive applications, customers that Total has often been able to reach through its regional distributors.

Finian Fernandez, Unigrade Trading, Distributor

“We are going reduce our inventory because the plant is going to produce in a quicker turnaround. We will see less requirements of warehouse storage in time to come. Actually our relationship with Total this year will be 30 years, I am actually very optimistic and looking forward to working with this new plant. It’s going to be a lot more beneficial for us.”

A more appropriately-sized plant that will give Total greater visibility, and more importantly, the ability to serve demand in the booming Asian market.

Pai Kok Tan, Vice President Lubricants, Marketing & Services Asia-Pacific, Total

“The lubricant market in the Asia-Pacific is growing dynamically, we expect the volume to grow to 20 million tons by 2020.
Singapore has been our regional hub for the last 30 years. And its strategic location as the gateway to Asia gives us unparalleled access to all the raw material supply that is available in this region.”

Ultimately, the Singapore plant will cover 29 countries in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond… With the goal of doubling lubricant sales by 2022.