Far East Oil Terminal Two (M) Sdn Bhd (Feoso Malaysia)
Slick solutions
Incorporated in 2003, Far East Oil Terminal Two (M) Sdn Bhd (Feoso Malaysia) is a specialist third party manufacturer of lubricants for passenger car, motorcycle, heavy and light commercial vehicles, metalworking, and general industrial and marine applications.
It also provides packed lubricant warehousing, base oil storage and lubricant laboratory testing services. With a strategic vision to become a world-class specialist OEM lubricant manufacturer and a one-stop lubricant solution to its customers, the plant already services both local and major companies in the majority of South East Asia and Australia.
“We are a 100 per cent third party toll blender; we don’t make our own brand but blend for other companies, both local and international. A major local customer is BHP, which took over all BP gas stations; we also pack for oil companies such as BP and the Philippines firm Petron too,” explains Gan Eng Kiong, general manager of Feoso Malaysia. With its office and manufacturing plant located in a free trade zone in Westport, Port Klang, the division of Hong Kong headquartered FEOSO Group has spent the last decade earning itself a reputation as a reliable manufacturer of high quality lubricants. “We have had a fairly challenging few years, particularly in 2008 when the financial crisis hit us quite badly,” says Gan. “The plant only really began to grow three years ago and after we improved a number of key issues including quality assurance, filling capacity, staff competencies and high staff turnover. For example, we had a very high staff turnover, which meant training people up for jobs was almost impossible. To stabilise turnover we empowered staff by getting personnel involved in decision making and offered training.”
Strategically located in the West Port of Port Klang, the 12th largest port in the world, Feoso Malaysia’s plant of 6.7 acres has a dedicated base oil pipeline of 0.7 km length that connects with the shared jetty; it is through this pipeline that base oils via vessel are transferred directly to and from the plant. “The fact we are located at a port where we can buy our main ingredient, base oil, in bulk is definitely a key strength of Feoso Malaysia,” highlights Gan.
With a production capacity of 50 million litres of lubricant annually in one single shift, Feoso Malaysia has a total of 24 base oil storage tanks that range in size from 17 MT to 1750 MT. These have a total storage capacity of 10,000 MT, however Gan has plans to double this amount over the coming years. “We have 6.7 acres so there is a lot of space for us to expand into, and we are currently looking to expand our sheltered warehouse where we store both raw materials and the finished products; once we get local council approval we aim to expand it by 25,000 square feet. This will enable us to enhance our warehouse and transport services to become more of a one-stop lubricant solution to our customers,” he says. “We are also looking at building new tanks and taking our capacity to 20,000 MT, which will allow us to store much more base oil for both manufacturing and rental services. We want to deliver a complete solution, customers can give us an order, we can send it to their end user; our clients don’t even need to see the product.”
Having earned a reputation as a manufacturer of high quality lubricants, the terminal prides itself as a specialist in its field and is committed to constant improvements in all areas of production and services to meet the evolving needs of its wide customer base. To deliver satisfaction, each and every blend made by Feoso Malaysia is tested at its state-of-the-art lubricant testing laboratory, which ensures each and every blend made by the terminal passes its stringent quality control process. All raw materials for the manufacture of blends must also be quality tested and monitored by its qualified chemists. On top of this, the laboratory provides analysis on used oil, reporting on the condition of the used oil as well as an insight into the engine’s/machine’s condition. Committed to a high standard of quality, the ISO 9001: 2008 certified Feoso Malaysia works only with reliable suppliers of its raw materials that are also approved by major oil firms. Suppliers of base oils include Petronas (Malaysia), Exxon Mobil (Singapore) and S-Oil (Korea); the company also works closely with the best additive suppliers such as Infineum Lubrizol and Afton.
Other facilities at the terminal include a drum yard, which takes up an acre and a half of land to store finished lubricants and additives in drums, five blending tanks in sizes ranging from 40 MT, 20 MT, 15 MT, ten MT and five MT; these give the terminal flexibility in the blending of lubricants for a variety of volume requirements.
With a strategic vision to become a one-stop solution, the terminal is focusing on warehouse and facility expansions; these include acquiring a further three filling machines to triple filling capacity and building four new blending tanks of 50MT each. “The reason for the tank increase is to be able to blend additives for major oil companies,” explains Gan. “We have been approached by a number of them but we don’t have the necessary facilities to deliver this service; seeing this demand in the market, we plan to move down from purely providing lubricants to also manufacture additives and brake fluids. Ultimately we want to deliver a complete solution to all of our customers, not just manufacturing, but all related services.”
Far East Oil Terminal Two (M) Sdn Bhd (Feoso Malaysia)
Services: Lubricant toll blending