When we announced to the sales people that it would not be available after a certain date, a howl went up that rivals the coyotes I can hear from my back patio! It didn’t take long for us to backtrack and instead decide to raise the price, thinking that customers didn’t want to pay more. However, the sales volume remained unchanged. Engine Oil in UAE provides you the very affordable cost lubricants.
Our next tactic was to rebrand industrial hydraulic oil UAE with Z7 and use the Z7 pricing. It continued to sell at the same volume, confirming that customers don’t like change and will regard it with suspicion. It took several years before we could get the customers to stop asking for it and for the sales force to understand the need to sunset it.
The additive industry indicated general support for the idea, but one-member Company pointed out that API CH-4 is still a viable category and is growing in the marketplace. For example, Brazil and Mexico have adopted API CH-4 as a minimum standard. The company agreed that upgrading the market is important but believed that one year was too fast. Instead, it proposed two years, which would allow commercial lubricant oils marketers, additive companies and governmental agencies time to upgrade to API CI-4 and CI-4 Plus. It also pointed out that there may be testing protocols to be addressed.
What finally came out is that some companies are OK with CH-4 being sunsetted and others aren’t. Those in favor of the idea cite the upgrade as progress an opportunity to move overall oil quality up. These companies are optimistic that change can benefit automotive lubricants marketers and additive suppliers, not to mention customers.
Those with more concerns want to know why the sun setting is necessary. They feel that CH-4 has served the industry well and a market still remains. As I noted above, CH-4 has the largest share of demand globally as of 2019. There is still a lot of old equipment out there, including 18-year-old vehicles. Further, gear lubricant oils formulators indicate that lubricant oil quality in the form of API Group II has replaced much of the older Group I lubricant oils in CH-4, effectively improving oil quality.
EMA responded to comments about existing category recommendations outside of the United Arab Emirates. They said they are pleased API categories are being used and thought it would be good to stay with the system but move all markets up to CI-4 or CI-4 Plus. Contact technolube today.
