Australia-based LMG Developments Ltd. is currently a major distributor of SINOPEC in Australia. A good growth momentum has been kept since both sides signed agreements in May this year. In order to promote SINOPEC products, LMG Developments has established a special company (ILD) and employed many marketing developers with rich marketing experience once international petroleum companies. They have started to set up oil houses, which are equipped with tank trucks with SINOPEC logo, in some places of Australia. At the same time, they are ready to start Netsuite commercial operation system and establish local website.

At present, LMG Developments are taking active measures to publicize and promote SINOPEC products. They have full confidence in SINOPEC's development in Australia. They recently advised SINOPEC product and published Sliding in Mining, an article to introduce SINOPEC, on Australia's Mining Monthly, a famous mining industry magazine in Australia. Here presented are the extracts of this article for all readers:

Sliding into mining

A new player is entering the tightly contested lubricants market in the mining sector
By Noel Dyson

Sinopec is a major Chinese oil company According to ILD ( International Lubricant Distributors) chief executive Tim Seeber, it is one of the major players in that market.

In Australia, Seeber said the market was broken into three tiers. To be in the top two tiers, Seeber Said, the lubricant suppliers had to meet original equipment manufacturer specifications and have the ability to supply.

“Sinopec ticks the quality and supply boxers,” he said. However, while Sinopec is in the top tier in the Asian market, Seeber will be putting it up against the second tier players in the Australian market. In that space it will be on par with them in terms of quality and supply but will be sold at a price premium.

Seeber said ILD had already signed three customers in Australia . “We’re pitching ourselves as competitively priced lubricants with high service levels,” he said.“Because we’re small we can react to customer needs.”

It also can get product pretty quickly. Seeber said the company could have product from Singapore——where Sinopec has a lubricants facility—— to Perth in six days. That is almost as fast as some can blend a batch of lubricants for a customer at North Fremantle.

Seeber said the company hoped to also differentiate itself on its service offering. “ In the lubricants business the manufacturers target the upper end of the market and the distributors target the small to medium-sized players,” he said.

“We’re doing both. We think we can bring some competition into the lubricants market in mining pretty quickly”

Bringing a price premium is very much part of the offering. Running lean is the way ILD plans to sustain its pricing. “ILD is a wholesaler,” Seeber said. “ We run very lean.We don’t invest in blending plants or raw materials warehousing. Our investments is in the warehousing of product ready to sell.

There is a level of quality assurance that goes with the Sinopec products. “Every Product we bring in has a certificate of conformity and a certificate of quality,”Seeber Said.“It’s added peace of mind for customers.”

The company also has opted to avoid going into the distribution side. Instead, it is outsourcing that to specialist providers. It has, however, spent up bit on customer relationship management and ERP software. Netsuite is one of those systems, which Seeber described as being a small to medium-sized enterprise version of Oracle.

As part of its warehousing investment, ILD is spending $400,000 on a  warehousing of product ready to sell. That facility will predominantly service the Western Australian market. However, the company also has warehousing in every state in Australia, as well as offices in Perth and Sydney.

Seeber is aware of the dangers of trying to be all things to all people.  he said “If you want all of the bells and whistles that may not be for us. We can do it but that is not our core business”

Staff is another area Seeber is carefully investing in. “We’re recruiting a high-quality technical team and sales force to support the product.” . he said. The people the company is seeking will have mining and mechanical maintenance backgrounds. Seeber himself has had senior roles with major lubricants suppliers and original equipment manufacturers in Australia

ILD also has an interesting pedigree in the mining sector. It shares some shareholder and directors with underground mining equipment rental specialist ET Hire and Sales.

The company has been going since May, quietly building a portfolio of customers in both the mining and general markets. It is on the cusp of launching a markets. It is on the cusp of launcing a marketing campaign to make its presence felt in the market. There is even talk of a television campaign and motorsport sponsorship.