Speaking of innovating eco-friendly lubrication, Deepak Tiwari, Vice President – Infra, Mining & Fleet Business, Gulf Oil Lubricants India Limited, mentions AdBlue Ecopro, an environmental friendly product for the construction and mining industry.

How are the infrastructural growth trends fuelling the oil and lubricant demand?
India is the 3rd largest and fastest-growing lubricant market after the USA and China. India’s lubricant market is expected to reach US$ 48.22 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 4.77 percent. Broadly, Indian infrastructure development can be categorised as urban infra, ports, irrigation, civil aviation, roads and railways, shipping and other segments. The ambitious National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) has set India’s target to achieve US$ 5 trillion in GDP by investing over US$ 1.4 trillion in the infrastructure subsectors. This has further boosted the runtime of construction equipment, thereby increasing the demand for Oil & Lubricants. We at Gulf Oil have always followed a unique and customised business model for the infrastructure sector. With a CAGR of 36 percent since the inception of our infrastructure business, we have been a forerunner and have always served this sector with our world-class and ever-evolving products. Road infrastructure development is the prime focus of our government and we also carry the road sector as our business strength – our 18 percent market share is a testimony in itself.

How are the global pricing trends influencing your business?
For the past two years, there has been a steady increase in the prices of commodities like steel, cement, and labour, and we for sure are no exception. The uncertainty across geo-political spheres has furthered this price increase. It also considers two other variables: input costs and currency exchange rates. Unlike B2C where price increase gets passed on to the customer as it occurs, in infrastructure business it needs to be handled strategically. And since we at Gulf Oil operate on a holistic model, this becomes more difficult to address. Thanks to our unique business model and product-bundling customised as per the specific application – excavation, crushing, piling, tunnelling etc; coupled with our efficient and strategic procurement system, we are able to absorb these sudden price rise shocks and gradually incorporate them in our business.

How does your lubrication ensure sustainability, reliability, and long-term protection for industrial equipment?
At Gulf Oil, one of our prime focuses has been product development and continuous improvement. Being in the rigorous and tough working conditions for the construction equipment, the input lubricants should also be very robust. We offer a very customised lubricant solution specific to the construction application and the equipment and
our products go through a continuous improvement process to offer the best protection and long-term sustainability to these equipment. Our in-house facility of conditional monitoring and oil sample analysis helps our esteemed customers achieve preventive maintenance and increase the up-time of the equipment. Gulf Oil is also known for many firsts: for example, we pioneered the concept of increasing the drain interval – may it be engine oil or hydraulic oil or any other of our products; and we continuously work towards innovating a better lubricant solution. We have also developed many eco-friendly products for industrial applications to minimise the adverse impact on the environment – we always strive to be energy efficient and environmentally conscious.

How do you look at the R&D requirement to innovate environmentally-friendly lubricants?
Our world-class product R&D division ensures highly engineered product offerings representing the next generation of lubricants. These oils and lubricants exceed the industry’s existing performance and emission norms, thereby increasing the life and reliability of capital-intensive construction and mining equipment. Keeping in line with sustainable development, we have launched AdBlue Ecopro – an environmental friendly product for the construction and mining industry. Our e-mobility efforts are reflected in our partnerships with Indra Renewable, a smart charging solution company, and Electreefi, a SaaS-based e-mobility solution. We have also launched a range of EV fluids to cater to the upcoming requirements of electric vehicles.

Can you brief us on your offerings for the construction equipment/industrial range?
We offer a comprehensive line of oils and lubricants – carefully designed for specific applications and construction equipment. From wire rope grease for cranes to very heavy-duty hydraulic oil for tunnel boring machines, we have customised products for each and every application. Every construction equipment is unique in its own way and so one-product-fits-all cannot work here; the lubrication solutions also have to be very unique and application specific. Our product development team works very closely with our OEM business partners and to meet their specific requirements we have also launched Genuine Oils and Co-branded products. With more than 5000+ formulations and a combined manufacturing capacity of 140,000 KL, strengthened by our construction OEM associations, we are fully prepared to cater to any and every lubricant requirement of the construction equipment segment.