Nippon Oil sets up subsidiary in Brazil

Japanese company Nippon Oil Corp. has decided to establish a 100%-owned subsidiary in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and has also set up a liaison office in New Delhi, India, to supply lubricants to local customers. The Tokyo-based company aims to sell a total of 300,000 kiloliters per year of lubricants in overseas markets and have targeted the said countries as a source of stable demand for automotive lubricants. The company’s Brazilian subsidiary will act as its sales agent in Latin America while the Indian office will be tasked with gathering useful information for future business development, manufacturing and marketing in the country. Meanwhile, Nippon also said it plans to build a 10,000 kiloliter per year pilot plant to produce cellulosic ethanol by 2014. The pilot plant is part of a Japanese project to develop ethanol using commercial technologies. Six companies—Nippon Oil, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., Toyota Motor Corp., Kajima Corp., Sapporo Engineering Ltd. and Toray Industries Inc.—are taking part in the project which is being run by the Research Association of Innovative Bioethanol Technology. (March 5, 2009)