Brazilian Lubricants Market
Surpassing even the most optimistic expectations, the Brazilian Lubricants Market ended 2021 with a 9.4% increase in sales compared to 2020, with a total volume of 1,477,351 m3, historically behind only the years 2013 and 2014. Imports of base oils were a record, reaching 868 thousand cubic meters.
The movement of the lubricants market followed the auto industry, which grew 11.6% in 2021, even though it was still far from the sales levels of previous years.
The ranking of the main companies shows Iconic Lubrificantes in first place, with 18.3% of share, followed by Vibra Energia with 15.9%, Moove (Cosan/ExsxonMobil) with 14.1%, Shell with 11.3% and Petronas with 8.2%. Rounding out the Top 10 list on the market are YPF, Energis8, Quaker, Total and Castrol.
Brazil imported about 61,896 m3 of finished lubricating oils, almost 30% of which was electrical insulating oil, which placed Sweden as the largest supplier, followed by the United States (21.5%), France (12%) and Argentina (11.9%).
Exports of finished oils totaled 98,495 m3, with Paraguay being the country that most received products from Brazil with around 27.2% of the volume exported, followed by Argentina (21.2%) and Bolivia (13.6%). Uruguay, Venezuela and Colombia follow the list.
the base oils
Brazilian imports of base oils broke the historical record, reaching a volume of 868,050 m3 in 2021, leading to a disbursement of more than US$796.3 million, in the FOB category. The countries that most sent base oils to Brazil were the United States with 68.5%, followed by Malaysia (6.2%), South Korea (6.0%), Sweden (2.8%), Russia (2.4%) followed by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar with 2.2% each. India, Greece, Spain and the United Arab Emirates appear next. Others with smaller volumes, such as Finland, Italy, Egypt and a few others also participated in this volume of Brazilian imports.
The national refineries, Reduc, Rlam and Lubnor, had a total production of 621,622 m3 in 2021, and the re-refining industry contributed 265,485 m3 to the supply of base oils to the domestic market.
The general picture of the supply of base oils in Brazil is as follows:
Production at national refineries 35.4%
Re-refine 15.1%
Import 49.5%
A complete analysis of the performance of the Brazilian lubricants market in 2021 will be presented in a special article in the next issue of Lubes em Foco magazine.
