Specialist team responds to automotive demands

In 2006 the automotive industry is expected to face further competitive pressure, and both automotive manufacturers and component companies will demand higher and higher quality products.

In 2005 many of the established players in the automotive manufacturing industry were involved in major restructuring operations as a result of an unpredictable and changing global market.

As recent announcements from GM have shown, this is especially true in the USA, where the production capacity was too high for the post 9/11 economic downturn.

These pressures have been passed on to suppliers to the automotive manufacturing industry, who have been forced to provide higher quality components at lower costs.

As a result, many of these manufacturers have transferred production to emerging markets to take advantage of lower overheads and labour costs.

However, these companies still require high technology fluid solutions, and it was for this reason that Shell lubricants companies established a specialist global automotive components team, dedicated to ensuring that their customers were able to benefit from high quality fluids and lubricants wherever they are around the globe.

Juergen Roehler, Global Automotive Components Sector Manager for Shell Industrial Lubricants, comments: "In 2005, the automotive industry increasingly required fluid products to be available not only in the traditional markets, but in Latin America, China, India and Eastern Europe".

"We also saw a growing requirement for lubricants and fluids to be produced in the countries where they are required, reducing costs associated with freight and country taxes.

"In Europe there has also been a noticeable shift from the mature markets of Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK".

"Although these markets remain strong, Shell lubricants companies are supplying ever increasing quantities of lubricants and fluids to the developing automotive markets in Turkey, Poland, Hungary and Russia", continues Roehler.

Automotive companies moving their traditional manufacturing base to emerging markets still expect the same specifications from their materials and lubricants wherever it is produced.

In addition to having local production facilities, lubricant and fluid suppliers must also work in partnership with automotive components manufacturers to develop bespoke fluid products.

Although local companies can currently supply low-cost lubricants many do not have the research, development and technology in place to offer hi-tech and bespoke fluids.

Roehler provides the following example: "When ZF began the development of its state-of-the-art, six-speed automatic transmission, experts form Shell Lubricants were able to work alongside them to develop a bespoke automatic transmission fluid to ensure maximum efficiency benefits".

"The finished product is now used in the new BMW six and seven series, Audi A8 and new Jaguar models".

The Shell Lubricants automotive sector team is also working with Torotrak to develop a transmission fluid for its revolutionary infinitely variable transmission (IVT).

In this product, power transmission is achieved by traction via an extremely thin, but extremely viscous, elastohydrodynamic fluid film, and not through metal-to-metal traction.

"The IVT variator could not function without the use of sophisticated traction fluids and it is Shell's work in this field over a number of years, as well as its global reputation for the development of new technology that have proved invaluable to Torotrak's development programme".

"By developing a fluid alongside a new product, an automotive component manufacturer can increase the life, performance and quality of the final component", adds Roehler.

In 2006 the automotive industry is expected to face further competitive pressure, and both automotive manufacturers and component companies will demand higher and higher quality products.

Only by working alongside OEMs and continuing to invest in research and development can lubricant companies meet these demands.

As the cost pressures on automotive component companies continue to increase, Roehler has also noticed a growing trend in companies re-evaluating the way they buy production lubricants for the manufacturing process.

"We are finding that more and more manufacturers are turning away from choosing their lubricant supplier based on unit cost".

"Manufacturers are instead looking to reduce the cost of their lubricant spend through secondary cost savings: in other words, buying high quality lubricants that will help reduce downtime, decrease emergency shutdowns and contribute to a higher quality finished product".

"These savings can be substantially higher over the lifespan of a lubricant than the potential savings generated by a 'lower cost' purchasing decision, and this is certainly a trend which will continue to gain momentum over the next few years".

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