Electric vehicle trend to impact lubricant Industry

By OEM Update Editorial July 3, 2021 3:46 pm IST

We are working with key customers on total cost of ownership and minimising the impact of price increase.

How are the present global trends impacting the oil and lubricant industry? Electric Vehicle is major trend which will heavily impact lubricant industry not only in terms of lower demand but also the complete change of products. Though Indian market will not have any major impact in next 10~15 years but, we will see a change in products and further intense competition. Since western world has lot of push towards electric Vehicles, we will see that many medium size lubricants companies which are not available in India will come here and increase the competition.

Looking at the price volatility of global oil prices, what kind of oil and lubricants do you offer to the market?

Base oils, which is major raw material for lubricants is extremely volatile in recent time due to various reasons like continuous increase in crude oil prices; low demand and affecting the productivity of refineries; low availability of containers and skyrocketing shipping cost; and extended lead times. Not only base oils, but there has been substantial increase in cost all around – whether it is additives & chemicals, packaging material or transportation.

Crude oil prices are expected to reach $100 per barrel within this year, which is going to hurt further. We have taken steps to minimise the impact by increasing our productivity as well as our customers. However, all this is impossible to retain the price. Hence, we have worked with key customers on total cost of ownership and minimise the impact of all these increases.

With the increasing environmental concerns, what kind of ecological lubrication do you offer?

We have recently launched our range of biodegradable greases in India, which are top of the line products in this region. This will not only show our commitment towards the government policies but also our company’s global direction of sustainable products. As mentioned earlier, we have also taken the initiatives of ‘Total Cost of Ownership’, by which we are working to reduce the consumption of the products, by increasing the life of the different lubricants. With such initiatives, we not only minimise the waste disposal quantity but also save carbon foot print by producing less quantity.

What are your plans and projections to realign the market position post COVID?

Current pandemic has affected all very badly. There are lots of uncertainties in the market. We very much thankful to our team which is highly agile and responded in time, and achieved respectable volumes in last financial year. Second wave have hurt us too, though we at Motul in India are safe. But we lost some of our network partner’s family members and/or employees. Hence, we have launched different incentive for vaccination and training to minimise the risk.

On business front, we are continuously monitoring the situation and adjusting to the market needs. I personally feel that the market will come back strongly as soon as normalcy comes back – after COVID – keeping in mind the caution that we shall be facing challenges like disruption in supplies, increase credit, increase cost of different raw materials to name a few, in coming time.