Hyundai Oilbank enters lubricant market

Hyundai Oilbank Co., South Korea's fourth-largest refiner, said Wednesday that it has entered the lubricant market by launching new engine oil named XTeer. The refiner said it will produce some 180,000 barrels of engine oil by next year and sell them both at home and abroad. The local lubricant market is estimated at 2.5 trillion won (US$2.3 billion), with local refiners such as S-Oil Corp. and GS Caltex Co. holding a combined market share of 45 percent. Hyundai Oilbank started work on the construction of a plant to produce lube base oil for materials of high-grade lubricant products in January, joining hands with a global energy company Shell. The plant to be built in Daesan, a coastal city 137 kilometers southwest of Seoul, by the end of next year will have the production capacity of 20,000 barrels of lube base oil per day. Earlier in the year, Hyundai Oilbank and Shell set up a joint venture to build and operate the plant, with Hyundai holding a 60 percent stake in the company. Lubricant products have versatile uses including as motor oils and transmission fluids as well as other commercial and industrial applications.