Shell opens its largest grease plant in China

Image from archives.

Shell opened its largest grease plant in China Friday to produce 30,000 tonnes annually for the growing national demand.

The grease – oil thickened with lithium – is used mainly in passenger cars and industrial bearing lubrication. The plant has four production lines with the potential to make as much as 40,000 tonnes per year.

Nasdaq reports that a third of light vehicle sales growth in the last five years has taken place in China. The country overtook the US as the biggest automobile market in the world by sales volume in 2009, thanks to a stimulus package including tax incentives for small cars by the Chinese government.

 Image courtesy SmokingPermitted, Flickr