The share of vehicles in Russia that use American Petroleum Institute’s API SM or API SN motor oil categories increased in the last couple of years, a new market study found.

One of Azerbaijan’s few lubricant producers is a three-year-old start-up that is using just a fraction of its manufacturing capacity. But Technol officials say the company is growing and that it aims to become a major player in its home market while also developing an export business.

Maritime emissions regulations that took effect at the start of this year led the shipping to shift to low-sulfur fuel oils, in turn causing a transition from base number 70 or BN 100 grades cylinder oils to novel BN 40 products, industry sources told Lube Report.

Russian lithium hydroxide producer Khimiko-Metallurgicheskiy Zavod posted more than a tenfold increase of its operating profit to 167 million rubles (U.S. $2.3 million) for 2019, according to the company’s latest earnings report.

French lubricant demand dropped 5.2 percent in 2019 as the European Union’s carbon dioxide emission reduction targets put pressure on the automotive sector in France and other large Euro economies, according to a consultant.

Russian’s vehicle market is enduring a difficult period, with steep sales declines projected for 2020 as a quarantine intended to contain Covid-19 devastates businesses, forces millions out of labor and depresses consumer spending.

Tatneft has finished building a lubricants blending plant at the site of its Taneco refinery in Nizhnekamsk, Russia, and plans to start operations in June, the company told Lube Report.

More than a quarter of Polish motorists do not know what type or brand of oil is used in their vehicle, according to a new marketing study on motor oil consumer behavior within the country.

Poland consumed more than 226,000 metric tons of lubricants in 2019, down 3.5 percent from the year before, and the slight decrease is attributed to weakening of the automotive industry and other sectors such as the metallurgy and mining, according to a Polish trade organization’s report.

Russian passenger car motor oil demand reached 267,000 metric tons in 2019, up almost 2 percent compared to the previous year, according to a Moscow-based consultancy.