Evonik Industries’ Oil Additives Technology Center employees, their customers and VIP guests celebrated the move of the Shanghai Oil Additives staff to new and expanded laboratory facilities on Tuesday, May 20. The festivities included inaugural ceremonies and seminars focused on the labs’ test equipment at their facilities in the Xinzhuang Industrial Park in the Minhang district of Shanghai.

“Evonik is proud to be keeping pace with China’s fast-growing lubricants market and providing additional technical service capabilities to our customers,” explained Wei Kiat Tan, Asia-Pacific regional manager for Evonik’s Oil Additives business line. “Since 2005, when we first opened our Shanghai Technology Center, the China lubricants market has grown more than 50 percent and vehicle production has increased more than three-fold,” he adds.

Dr. Hans-Josef Ritzert, president of the Evonik Greater China Region, in his speech celebrating the Oil Additives expansion, noted the importance of Evonik’s automotive industry customers in China and Evonik’s commitment to providing them with a wide variety of innovative products and solutions. “As part of Evonik’s Automotive Industry Team (AIT), our Oil Additives business offers technologies and products that improve fuel efficiency,” he states.

With the move from its previous location in the industrial park, the Oil Additives team of lab technicians and technical service specialists have gained not only more space, but have also acquired additional and sophisticated laboratory test equipment. The team’s analytical capabilities now include more than two dozen key industry tests, enabling a significant expansion in the variety and sophistication of technical analyses the group performs for its lubricant-formulating customers and major OEMs.

Notable among these tests is a lubricants industry-recognized low- temperature, aged oil performance test developed by Evonik itself. The ROBO test, as it is known in the industry, is a key measure for engine oil specifications. The Evonik Shanghai Technology Center has been certified to perform ROBO testing since 2012.

Two additional employees will be hired – one laboratory technician and one technical service specialist.

“Evonik’s Oil Additives team is strengthening its technical resources and capabilities in China, and is also expanding its manufacturing resources in Asia,” states Wei Kiat Tan. The company’s oil additives manufacturing plant in Singapore is presently at mid-completion of a two-year program to double its capacity through a combination of expansion and “debottlenecking” projects.

In addition, just last month, the company marked the move of its Japan Technology Center to expanded facilities in Tsukuba, where it is also adding staff.

Evonik produces its oil additives under the brand name VISCOPLEX® and its synthetic base fluids under the VISCOBASE® brand. In addition to its VISCOPLEX® Viscosity Index Improvers (VIIs) in engine oils, driveline fluids, gear oils, and hydraulic fluids, Evonik’s VISCOBASE® synthetic base fluids provide excellent solvency in automotive gear oil formulations such as heavy duty axle oils and manual transmission fluids.

The Oil Additives business line of Evonik Industries also specializes in additives and technologies for fuels and refinery products. Evonik’s VISCOPLEX® Cold Flow Improvers (CFIs) provide outstanding flow properties for biofuels in any region or season. VISCOPLEX® dewaxing aids (DWAs) are designed for refinery solvent dewaxing processes that involve differing lube oil viscosity grades, especially bright stocks.

Evonik is active in over 100 countries around the world. In fiscal 2013 more than 33,500 employees generated sales of around €12.9 billion.