5th Asia-Pacific Base Oil Conference
Changes in Passenger Car and Diesel Engine Oil in the Asia-Pacific Retail Markets
Ted Selby
Research & Development Director
Savant Group
Abstract
In 1984, a decade before the American Petroleum Institute's After Market Audit- ing Program was launched, the Institute of Materials Inc. (IOM) started collecting and testing off-the-shelf engine oils. The data gathered from these tests was published in an engine oil database available yearly on a subscription basis.
The IOM engine oil database began with 100 engine oils collected from the North American retail market and evaluated with 12 laboratory tests. In subsequent years, the North American database was increased
to sample 250 oils per year, and its reach extended beyond the continent. In 1992, IOM began its first sampling in Asia with a collection of 100 engine oils from retail markets in Japan. By 1998, IOM was collecting 300 samples throughout Asia, and Australia was added to the Asia-Pacific collection in 2001.
Today IOM collects 650 engine oil samples each year from markets in Asia-Pacific, Western Europe and North America. The Asia-Pacific collection is the largest with 300 samples collected from 11 countries encompassing Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. The Asia-Pacific collection is by far the most diverse in the socio-economic and cultural influences of the markets and in the quality level of oil samples collected.
With 26 years of tracking and reporting on engine oil quality in the retail market and 18 years of data on Asia-Pacific samples, the IOM data can be tapped to reveal trends and unexpected changes in formulation and marketing. For the purposes of this paper, IOM will discuss and graphically illustrate some of the findings based on the Asia- Pacific portion of the database.
Without unbiased, consistent measurement of many engine oils, it is difficult to determine whether or not there has been broad improvement in oil quality over time. The fact that the IOM engine oil database has long-term continuity in providing such information is part of its value. The paper will discuss findings of improvement in oil quality as well as areas of potential concern.
The paper will also discuss findings in countries where historically there has been a greater demand for modern automobiles in comparison to other countries like China and India which are more recently experiencing a marked surge in demand for new cars. The analysis will include shifts in the retail markets with a look at service categories, grades of oil, increase of synthetic base stocks and pricing. This will be the first in- depth look at changes in engine oil sold in retail markets in Asia-Pacific over a decade, and will begin our first annual report of findings from the IOM worldwide database.
About the Speaker
Ted Selby has studied the physical and chemical responses of lubricants since joining General Motors Research in 1952, Dow Chemical Co. in 1964, and Savant, Inc. in 1971. He is a member or Fellow of several technical societies including the American Chemical Society, the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers, the Society of Automotive Engineers, and ASTM Inter- national. In the course of his career he has given quite a few papers and generated a number of instrumental patents.
