Shell celebrates opening of its China commercial centre in Shanghai
Shell opened its China commercial centre in Shanghai today, which sees the majority of its downstream businesses move to the country’s commercial hub.
The businesses now operating from the new centre include lubricants, corporate sourcing, marine products, bitumen, sulphur and chemicals sales. Shell’s first training centre for Chinese distributors, Shell Shanghai University, also resides in the centre. The company’s China corporate headquarters remains in Beijing.
“This is a strategic step forward to make Shanghai an important commercial and operational centre for Shell in China and bring us closer to our customers, partners as well as market opportunities,” said Huibert Vigeveno, executive chairman of Shell Companies in China.
Shell is the leading international oil company in the China market in terms of lubricants supply, marine products, bitumen and chemicals. China is the second largest lubricants market for Shell, after the U.S.
The company spends billions of U.S. dollars each year sourcing equipment and services from Chinese companies for its businesses and operations in China and around the world. Its growing procurement spend in China is a reflection of the progress the company is making in implementing one of its strategic priorities in the country, which is taking Chinese enterprises overseas – leveraging China capability and growing business together.
“Our new commercial hub in Shanghai reinforces Shell’s already broad commercial footprint in China. It builds on our headquarters in Beijing, R&D centre in Shanghai and extensive sales and distributor network across more than 200 cities,” said Mark Gainsborough, executive vice president of Global Commercial.
The commercial centre will allow Shell to get the most from its supply chain assets as well as customer service capacity.
Speaking of Shell’s strategic plan for China, Vigeveno said, “Shell continues to invest substantially in China in both upstream and downstream. We work in partnership with leading Chinese energy companies in China to develop cleaner burning natural gas and provide quality oil products for Chinese customers. We also take these partnerships internationally to develop cleaner energy resources for China and bring them to Chinese customers. This ‘In China, For China’ strategy continues to guide us in our second century in the country.”
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