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GLOBAL lubricants manufacturer Fuchs last week commissioned its multi-million dollar plant at Beresfield, near Newcastle, and has started supplying bulk oil to customers.

The development puts Fuchs’ Australian operations on a world-class standing and promises improved quality and consistent supply while creating substantial efficiencies in the manufacturing of the lubricant products.

Fuchs Australia managing director Wayne Hoiles said the new Beresfield blending plant will supercede the older facility at Wickham, which will be demolished and sold to become part of a major residential redevelopment of the Newcastle dockside suburb.

At Beresfield, 22km from Newcastle, the new facility blends and packages oil products.

“We are now supplying bulk clients including mining businesses in NSW and Queensland,” Mr Hoiles said.

“We started producing last week but there is still some commissioning of secondary operations to be done and we expect that to be finalised by the end of February.”

Mr Hoiles said the lubricants business in Australia was very strong in line with a focus by his company to meet customer demands for high-performance products. This was being seen in all sectors including automotive, agriculture, industrial and mining.

 

“The new plant puts us in a great position,” he said.

Fuchs recently bought German-based specialised lubricant company Pentosin which will increase the product range for clients, particularly for those with high performance applications such as dual-clutch transmissions.

“It ensures we have the best products across a wider range of applications,” Mr Hoiles said of the Pentosin acquisition.

The company has another lubricant and grease production plant in Melbourne that generally caters for clients in Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and New Zealand.

“The great thing for the region is that both plants in Australia manufacture over 95 per cent of products sold in Australia and New Zealand,” Mr Hoiles said.

“Outside of New Zealand, which takes about 10 per cent of our production, we only export less than one per cent of products.

“We are upgrading the Melbourne grease plant for the second time due to the strong demand. This will result in a 30 per cent increase in production capacity when it comes on stream in the new year.”

Fuchs, which has increased Australian employee numbers by 15 per cent in the past three years, now has 180 on staff.

Fuchs will hold its official opening on site on February 15, to be hosted by the chairman of the company, Stefan Fuchs.

By Neil Dowling

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