Shell announced the opening of its new lubricant blending plant in Tianjin, China. The new plant can produce 330 million litres of finished lubricants per year. With the potential to expand production to 500 million litres per year, the plant would be Shell’s largest lubricant blending plant in China.

“In the last few years, we have made multi-million dollar investments in Shell’s lubricants supply chain in Asia, particularly in China, in both new and existing assets. This plant is our most automated and advanced facility yet. It is strategically located in the Tianjing Nangang Industrial Park to capture demand for transport and industrial lubricants in Northern China. China remains a key growth market for Shell Lubricants. We will continue to invest in upgrading and expanding our existing assets and are committed to building a robust lubricant supply chain here,” said Shell’s Vice President of Lubricants Supply Chain Dennis Cheong.

The new state-of-the-art plant produces a full range of Shell branded engine oils, including Shell Helix passenger car motor oils and Shell Rimula heavy-duty engine oils. The new plant is also fully integrated with Shell’s global gas-to-liquid (GTL) supply chain, with access to GTL base oils made at the Pearl GTL plant in Qatar. This enables the plant to produce premium tier products from natural gas, such as Shell Helix Ultra with PurePlus Technology, for Chinese consumers.

This plant also meets the highest industry standards in blending technology with three blending systems, five fully automated, high-speed filling lines and five more filling lines in the pipeline. It also has bulk vehicle loading facilities to cater to customers with bulk supply deals such as fleet owners or general manufacturing businesses.