EDIBLE OILS, ESSENTIAL OILS, LUBRICATING OILS, GREASES, VEGETABLE OILS, WAXES, CAMPHOR, PERFUMES & PERFUMERY COMPOUNDS AND REFINED OILS ETC.

India accounts for 9.3 per cent of world oilseed production. It has the world's fourth largest edible oil economy. Yet, about 43 per cent of edible oil available in India is imported. In 1999, India ranked as the world's largest importer of edible oils, displacing China. The bulk of edible oil India imports under the Open General Licence (OGL) is RBD palmolein of Malaysian and Indonesian origin.
India has approximately 300 crude edible oil refining units, 60-70 per cent of which are small. Unlike the bigger refiners, the small ones are unable to import huge quantities of crude either due to their low capacity or lack of financial resources, and may be forced to close down or sell out to the bigger ones in the foreseeable future.
A major problem is the low capacity utilisation. The installed capacity of oil mills is around 36 million tonnes annually, but capacity utilisation is only 40 per cent. Solvent extraction plants show only 33 per cent capacity utilisation and vegetable oil refineries show 40 per cent.
The total import of edible oils during the period from November 1998 to October 1999 totalled 4.4 million tonnes valued at more than Rs. 9,000 crores. That was against a demand-supply gap of 1.4 million tonnes in 1998-99. Imports have therefore deluged the market.

These are exciting times for the lube industry in India. Each one of the vast contingent of 22 Multinationals and a total of 80 big & small players are vying for a pie of Rs.5,500 Crore market. Worldwide established brands,some of them albeit new to India, like Shell, Mobil, Caltex, Elf, Pennzoil are fighting it out with established Indian brands like SERVO & others to establish their foothold in the 6th largest lubricant market in the World. Compared to the average World consumption of 35 Million tonnes per annum & Asia-Pacific region consumption of 7.5 million tones, the Indian lube industry with annual demand of 1 million tonnes is just behind Japan and China in Asia having a demand growth rate of 4% compared to the World growth rate ranging between zero to 2%. That is the lube industry in India today.
Prior to 1992 the lube industry in India was controlled by the 4 major Public Sector Oil companies namely Indian Oil, HPC,BPC & IBP and a handful of private companies like Castrol, Gulf, Tidewater & others. With the distribution & canalisation of base oil import being controlled by the Government of India, the PSU Oil Companies controlled 90% of the market share. The decanalisation of the lube base oil imports in 1993 by the Govt. of India followed by reduction of import duty on lube base oils from 85% to 30% and gradual scrapping of administered pricing observed the announcement of almost a new lube venture every month during 1994. Most of the new entrants formed associations with Indian companies both in the Private & Public sectors. All these new entrants are targeting for a very small share of the market considering that even 1% market share means a sale of Rs.55 Crores.
The Indian Oil controlled 54% of the lube market out of total PSU's market share of more than 90% during 91-92. The Government policy of deregulation followed by entry of multinationals through JVCs had its effect on the market dominance of PSUs. This has been followed by sudden entry of lot many players, each one claiming to have some international collaboration and a `foreign' brand name.This had its initial impact and illusions in the market and the market became more volatile. During these phases marketing channels of distribution had drifted from petrol stations to bazaar trade.
The Marketing Channels
The marketing channels for automotive lubricants in India consist of the following,
Petrol Stations
Wholesale Distributors
Lube Oil Shops
Auto Spare Shops
Authorised Service Stations
Garages
Rural & Agricultural dealers
Super Markets.
 

EIRI have recently prepared the following project reports for new entrepreneurs, industrialists and economics, these materials are quite useful for selection of an appropriate industry of your own choice.