In an insightful conversation with Anushka Vani, Priyanka Ghosh, Vice President and Head of Industrial Sales at Castrol India, discusses the critical role of advanced lubricants in enhancing efficiency and sustainability across industrial sectors. She highlights how Castrol India’s tailored solutions help manufacturers optimise performance, reduce costs, and extend equipment life while minimising environmental impact.
How do you see the role of advanced lubricants in driving efficiency and sustainability across industrial manufacturing sectors today?
For over a century, Castrol India has led the global industrial lubricants sector, providing tailored solutions for automotive, engineering, steel, cement, wind, textiles, food, and other manufacturing industries. Our diverse portfolio drives continuous innovation, enabling customised solutions that enhance operational efficiency, reduce costs, and support sustainability.
India’s rapid industrial growth, driven by domestic demand and exports, has heightened the need for manufacturers to improve product quality while optimising costs. The right lubricants are crucial in achieving these goals by enhancing efficiency and performance. Today, customers seek lubricants that extend tool life, reduce component rejection, and ensure ease of use and disposal with minimal environmental impact. Castrol’s advanced industrial lubricants are designed to improve machine reliability, extend tool and sump life, and drive long-term efficiency and sustainability.
What are the most significant trends and challenges currently shaping the industrial lubricants market in India, and how is Castrol India addressing them?
In today’s evolving industrial landscape, customers seek more than just a lubricant supplier, they need a collaborative partner offering comprehensive, 360-degree solutions. This includes proactive challenge analysis, expert guidance on efficient lubricant use, and seamless shop-floor management to ensure optimal performance and reliability. Castrol India is well-equipped to meet these diverse needs through value-driven services and initiatives. As a leading industrial lubricant supplier, we provide a wide range of products and specialised expertise to support every stage of manufacturing. Our end-to-end solutions streamline procurement and ensure seamless compatibility across applications, helping customers maximise efficiency, optimise performance, and unlock greater value from our engineered product platforms.
Our commitment extends further with Chemical Management Services (CMS), offering complete lubricant operations management, allowing customers to focus on core business activities. With over two decades of CMS experience, we continue to deliver year-on-year savings and benefits.
What role does technology and innovation play in Castrol India’s approach to supporting its industrial customers?
Technology is at the heart of Castrol India’s strategy to support industrial customers in the evolving landscape of Industry 4.0. With increasing digitisation on shop floors, production and maintenance data is now centrally accessible, enabling real-time monitoring and proactive interventions to prevent breakdowns. Advanced data analytics further enhance operational efficiency by optimising key processes.
Extending this to lubrication management, we have a global offer called Castrol SmartControl which offers cutting-edge digital solutions for real-time lubricant monitoring and management. Designed for Neat Oil and Soluble Oil applications, our system uses electronic sensors to continuously track critical lubricant parameters, instantly alerting users if they deviate from defined specifications. This data-driven approach not only enhances equipment reliability but also helps optimise lubricant top-ups, reduce total consumption, and maintain precise concentration levels, ensuring customers extract maximum value from their lubricants.
How does the India division contribute to this global strength, and what are some recent innovations specific to the Indian market?
Castrol has consistently led the way in innovation, exemplified by our involvement in NASA’s Mars Rover mission, where our products power one of the most advanced space exploration programmes. Our strong R&D capabilities enable us to stay ahead of industry trends and maintain leadership in the lubricant segment.
Our global technology capabilities enable us to bring world-class solutions to Indian customers. By collaborating with leading global OEMs, we develop high-performance products that enhance efficiency and reduce total cost of operations. While we leverage global expertise, we also drive innovation locally. Last year, we launched Rustilo DW 800, 806, 809, and 812; a rust preventive range designed and developed in India to address specific industry challenges. As per our market research findings, given India’s high-temperature conditions, traditional rust preventives with a 40°C flash point can be challenging. Also, there is a growing demand among customers for odour-free formulations with thin-film coating for better shopfloor conditions and application. After gathering these insights, we have integrated them into our product innovations, delivering solutions that ensure exceptional protection and usability.
What is your vision for Castrol India’s growth in the industrial segment, and how do you plan to navigate the evolving demands of efficient manufacturing in the coming years?
At Castrol India, our vision is to lead the industrial lubricants market by prioritising innovation and customer centric solutions. With a strong presence across India’s manufacturing sectors, we aim to be the preferred partner for all lubrication needs by introducing advanced products and expanding our services to meet the evolving demands of customers and emerging industries.
Our extensive product portfolio will help us cater to lubricant demands across sectors, with a keen focus on the sunrise sectors in India. We continue to do this by leveraging our innovation capabilities to bring the best in class products that help our customers make their operations more efficient and reliable. Castrol recently launched a new range of Castrol ON immersion cooling fluids for data centers, a breakthrough solution that enhances operational efficiency and sustainability through cutting-edge immersion cooling technology. With the growing demand for data centers, we continue to advance thermal management solutions at our R&D centre in the UK.
Looking ahead, we remain focused on enhancing our portfolio with innovative, highperformance industrial lubricants and expanding our offerings to support India’s rapidly growing industrial ecosystem. Also, the country’s accelerating industrialisation, coupled with government initiatives like the ‘Make in India’ campaign, presents significant growth opportunities for the industrial lubricants market in the coming years.
