Blue Chip Lubricants aims for one-fifth of South African lubricant market

Blue Chip Lubricants (BCL) has completed the construction of a new lubricant blending plant in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Gary Marais, managing director of Blue Chip Lubricants, says the lube blending plant located in  Kya Sands currently produces around 4 million litres of lubricants per month.

The company has an agreement to blend and distribute lubricants in South Africa for Q8Oils, which is part of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), one of the world’s largest oil companies.

Following the agreement with Q8Oils in 2015, Blue Chip Lubricants secured funding from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to construct a new lubricant blending plant and laboratory at Kya Sands. The plant came on stream this year.

The company, which was established in 1983 as a grease reseller, said its target is to secure one-fifth of South Africa’s lubricants market in the next three to five years. Its ambitious target will be aided by the sale of a majority stake (51%) of the company to Lutramart Oils Pty Ltd, which is a black-owned firm, the company said.

“The successful conclusion of our [empowerment] transaction effectively makes us the only majority black-owned blending facility in South Africa to blend and distribute a global brand, as well as complying fully with the government’s empowerment, employment, and equity objectives,” said Kathleen Marais, financial director.

“With lubricants constituting the major expense for equipment-intensive industries such as mining and engineering, the fact that an international brand is now being blended locally on a large scale, in accordance with exacting international quality standards, as well as all local black economic empowerment criteria, is of immense benefit for local companies,” says Sandile Koza, executive chairman of ‎Lutramart Oils Pty Ltd.

echo '