At the begining of 2021, together with PT Arianto Darmawan, we approached several customers exporting to Europe following the findings from the EU Commission about the risk of the presence of MOSH & MOAH in food, specifically baby foods. One aspect which increasingly gained global attention is the potential contamination of the palm oil during extraction and manufacture. Leading food manufactures are therefore increasingly pushing for the replacement of mineral oil-based products with H1 lubricants in all production steps.
Essentially, contamination can come about easily from 1) cultivational practices; to 2) transportation phrases; to 3) processing stages; to 4) courses of packaging, storage and distribution; and even during the 5) final food trade. Any incidental contact with food products is limited to 10 ppm.
During the Covid pandemic where direct visits to customers became a challenge, we stayed in touch with them online and were subsequently invited to three plants of one of our customers in the seed-to-shelf agribusiness. We offered training sessions to evaluate and address potential risks in their production facilities.
Upon identifying applications concerned to kick-start the project, mainly the Gearboxes, Hydraulic Press Machines and some small Bearing greases, the customer began placing orders in February 2023, acknowledging our efforts which turned into success!
The customer is now monitoring the MOSH & MOAH levels periodically. We thank the key personnel from their Research & Development and Quality Assessment units who acted as the key drivers in making the big decision in converting to Klüber!
At the end of the trial across the three plants, the in-house engineers observed a stabilization of MOSH & MOAH level in their end products and the European brand was also pleased with our customer’s adaption of our lubricants in their local plants.
As a result, the top management of our Indonesian customer decided to roll out a mass conversion of all their lubricant applications with Klüber in 2024. We have received a huge order of 45,000 litres of lubricants in Q1 2024, with a record-breaking largest single order coming to €1.36 million.
While we are in the process of executing the implementation for the customer, we are grateful to our colleagues Mr David Laing, Mr Bruno Benjerodt and Team from KLM Logistics who were helpful around production support. We also give special thanks to Ms. Louise Lui of KLSEA in supporting and coordinating shipping requests among PT Arianto Darmawan, KLSEA and KLM.
Written by:
Ian Goh, KLSEA
