ILMA Compoundings - April 2021 - 19

HDMO AND PCMO DEMAND IN THE MAJOR ASEAN
COUNTRIES BY VISCOSITY GRADE, 2019
100%

600 KT

500KT

HDMO

PCMO

90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

20W-40/50
Monogrades

10W-30/40
0W's

15W-40

5W's

All other

NOTE: Excludes Singapore and Brunei Darussalam

are excluded, Singapore's demand for lubricants is close to
that of Cambodia. The lubricants market in Lao PDR and
Cambodia are import-driven, with no significant indigenous
capacity for lubricants blending. Even in Myanmar, lubricants demand is mostly fulfilled by foreign suppliers.
Automotive lubricants accounted for a larger share than
industrial lubricants because the region is not as industrialized as western countries. Countries such as Cambodia,
Lao PDR and Myanmar do not have a well-developed
manufacturing sector, and their agriculture sector is not as
mechanized as other parts of the world. Cambodia and Lao
PDR do not have an automotive manufacturing base but
only a few assembly plants and are largely import-driven
markets. Myanmar has limited production of passenger cars
and commercial vehicles. Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia
and Vietnam are considered relatively more industrialized
than Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar. Thailand is the
largest automotive producer in ASEAN. The Philippines is
primarily considered a newly industrialized country, which
has an economy in transition from one based on agriculture
to one based more on services and manufacturing.
On further dividing the automotive segment into
consumer and commercial segments, the industrial segment appeared to be the largest because of huge demand

for marine lubricants in Singapore. The high population
of two-wheelers in this region explains why the consumer
automotive lubricants segment had a higher share than the
commercial automotive lubricants segment.
The total vehicle parc in select ASEAN countries was
estimated to range between 250 million and 300 million
units in 2019. Indonesia had the largest vehicle population
among ASEAN members, and it represented one of the largest two-wheeler markets in the world. Two-wheelers are a
key mode of transportation for the lower- and middle-class
population across various developing Asian countries. These
vehicles are not only used for personal use, but also are used
by businesses for providing services such as food delivery
and courier services. In most countries, the population of
two-wheelers is more than that of passenger cars, but in
Malaysia, the car population exceeds that of two-wheelers.
In the commercial segment, monogrades accounted for a
significant share of total heavy-duty motor oils (HDMO)
demand in the eight ASEAN countries in 2019. The old
on-highway vehicles, as well as off-highway equipment, are
responsible for the significant penetration of monogrades.
The most popular viscosity grades of multigrade HDMO
in use in 2019 were 15W-40, followed by 20W-40/50 and
10W-30/10W-40. Among these, the leading viscosity grade

ILMA Compoundings - April 2021

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