Nippon Oil to expand lubricants business in SE Asia

Japan’s Nippon Oil Corp. is taking steps to broaden its lubricating-oil business in Southeast Asia. The company anticipates growing demand for lubricants for cars and machine tools in Southeast Asia in the medium term, as the population increases and family cars become more common. The company will boost the production capacity of its recently acquired lubricant manufacturing subsidiary in Singapore, Eneos ItalSing Pte., by 30 to 40%, and widen its partnership with South Korea’s SK Corp. Nippon Oil already has two production bases for lubricants in China and plans to make Eneos ItalSing another base for Asia. (January 6, 2009)