Calumet

Calumet Specialty Products Partners L.P. reported a net loss of $87.1 million in the fourth quarter, compared with a net loss of $82.1 million in the same period in 2020. For the full year, the company reported a $260.1 million net loss, after a $149 million net loss in 2020.

Indianapolis-based Calumet said its fourth-quarter sales revenue grew 57% to $865.8 million, improving from $553.9 million. For the full year, sales increased 39% to $3.1 billion.

In the fourth quarter, the company’s lubricating oil sales volumes slipped to 10,848 barrels per day, compared with 11,049 b/d. Sales of waxes declined to 1,426 b/d, down from 1,510 b/d. Production for performance brands, a separate category that includes packaged and synthetic specialty products, decreased to 1,152 b/d, down from 1,303 b/d.

The supply chain issues that its performance brands segment has dealt with for most of 2021 continued to affect the business in the fourth quarter, Calumet noted. With strong underlying demand, performance brands “ended the year with a record sales order backlog of $34 million,” the company stated in its earnings news release. “We expect to continue to be impacted by a shortage of additive supply from our largest supplier through the first half of 2022.”

Quaker Chemical

Quaker Chemical – also known as Quaker Houghton – reported net income of $18.5 million for the fourth quarter, a 62% drop from $48.5 million in the same period last year. The company said an increase in net sales was more than offset by lower gross margins attributed mainly to such factors as increased raw material and other costs, supply chain and logistics cost pressures. The company’s net income for the year jumped 206% to $121.4 million, improving from $39.7 million in 2020.

Net sales increased 16% to $447 million for the fourth quarter. The company, headquartered in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, attributed the improvement partly to an increase in selling price and product mix, which was “primarily attributable to broad price increases implemented to help offset continued and unprecedented raw material cost increases as well as global supply chain and logistics cost increases.” For the full year, net income was up 21% at $1.8 billion.

“In the fourth quarter, we contended with escalating raw material pressures and supply chain disruptions, especially in automotive end markets,” Quaker Chemical CEO and President Andy Tometich said in the company’s earnings news release.

Tometich noted that while demand remains healthy across most of the company’s end markets, “we expect raw material cost pressures and supply chain disruptions to persist throughout 2022. To mitigate the impact of these ongoing inflationary pressures, we are implementing further price actions and are actively managing our cost structure.” The company believes the actions will begin to drive a recovery in margins as it progresses throughout this year, he said.

HollyFrontier

HollyFrontier Corp.’s lubricants and specialty products segment reported $53 million in income from operations, rebounding from a $53.6 million loss in income from operations in the year-earlier period. For 2021, the segment’s income from operations reached $242.4 million, improving from a $209.2 million loss in operations in 2020.

Revenues from external customers for the segment grew 51% to $699.9 million in the fourth quarter, compared with $462.7 million. For the full year, revenues from external customers rose 42% to $2.5 billion, up from $1.8 billion.

“Despite heavy planned and unplanned refining maintenance and weather-related downtime in the fourth quarter, HollyFrontier delivered solid financial results in 2021, highlighted by record earnings in our Lubricants and Specialties business,” Michael Jennings, CEO of the Dallas-based company, said in its earnings news release.

HollyFrontier’s lubricants and specialty products segment includes Petro-Canada Lubricants and its Mississauga, Ontario, refinery, which makes such products as base oils, white oils, specialty products and finished lubricants, along with specialty lubricants from HollyFrontier’s Tulsa refineries. Acquisitions Red Giant Oil Co. and Sonneborn are also part of the company’s lubricants and specialty products segment.

Clean Harbors

Clean Harbors’ Safety-Kleen Sustainability segment – which includes oil rerefining – reported third-party revenues of $213.3 million for the fourth quarter ending Dec. 31, a 67% jump from $127.9 million in the same period in 2020. For 2021, third-party revenues rose 54% to $779.4 million, improving from $506.2 million. These third-party revenues include sales of base oil, blended products and reclaimed fuel oil and a small amount of byproducts.

“As we saw throughout 2021, demand for both our base oil and blended products in the quarter drove strong pricing,” Chairman, President and CEO Alan McKim said in a news release. “We complemented that product pricing with highly effective management of our collection costs throughout our network. Waste oil gallons collected were up 14% in the quarter to 56 million gallons.” In the company’s business outlook and financial guidance report, McKim said that within Safety-Kleen Sustainability Solutions, based in Norwell, Massachusetts, “we continue to see a favorable pricing environment for our sustainable lubricant products and base oil. Coupled with the effective systems we have in place to manage our waste oil collection costs and improve transportation efficiencies, we expect to maintain a healthy rerefining spread in that segment again in 2022.”