Market Topics

Chemtura Gung Ho for Grease

October 1, 2008

Chemtura Corp. will increase calcium sulfonate grease capacity by 60 percent at its West Hill, Ontario, Canada, plant, adding three new kettles, annou ...

Ineos Bamble AS and Puralube Nordic AS have reached agreement for a lubricant oil production plant on the Ineos site at Ronningen in Bamble, Norway. P ...

U.S. Base Oil Price Report

September 24, 2008

News of force majeure and/or sales allocations at ExxonMobil, Motiva, Flint Hills and Nynas hit the U.S. base oil market this week. A number of signif ...

Oxea plans to raise list and off-list prices for several solvents across several regions, while Kraton Polymers said it will raise prices on SBS-based ...

Chevron Corp. said Friday that it has agreed to sell its downstream business in Nigeria to an African consortium for an undisclosed amount. The transa ...

Car counts continue their 13-year decline at U.S. quick lube facilities, which are servicing an average of 33.9 cars per day this year, down 1.5 carsf ...

CNOOC Builds Group II/III Plant

September 24, 2008

China National Offshore Oil Corp. is entering the paraffinic base oil market. The state-owned oil giant has broken ground on a 400,000 metric ton per ...

Lube manufacturers and distributors in the Houston area are focused on employee safety and keeping their business operations on track as they assess t ...

U.S. Base Oil Price Report

September 17, 2008

Guarded optimism characterized the U.S. lubricants industry yesterday, as base oil buyers and sellers alike awaited word on the impact of Hurricane Ik ...

BASF to Buy Ciba

September 17, 2008

BASF plans to acquire Ciba Holding AG via a public takeover offer to shareholders, bringing together two specialty chemical giants with products that ...

China Additives Blast Kills Two

September 17, 2008

An explosion Sunday morning at Dengta Jinhang Petrochemical Co. Ltd. in Liaoning Province, northeast China, killed two workers and injured others, acc ...

NPRA: US Lube Sales Down in 2Q

September 17, 2008

Total U.S. lubricant sales volumes in the second quarter of this year edged down 3.2 percent compared to the same period in 2007, according to the lat ...

Regrouping After Hurricane Ike

September 17, 2008

While base oil, additive and chemical manufacturers in southeastern Texas face power, fuel, water, food and transportation challenges in the aftermath ...

U.S. Base Oil Price Report

September 10, 2008

Another hurricane threat in the U.S. Gulf Coast region, along with a prevailing tight supply situation and lingering high prices, were key talking poi ...

High Velocity Alternative Energy has received a contract to sell up to $300,000 per month – $3.6 million annually – in private-label motor ...

RohMax Oil Additives recently announced a price increase on its lubricant additives, and BASF said it would raise prices in some regions for polyether ...

Castrol Industrial North America last week said it plans to restructure its business, citing unprecedented increases in raw materials, packaging and f ...

Nonconventional base stocks – polyalphaolefins, phosphate esters, polyalkylene glycols, Group III hydrocracked oils and others – are a gro ...

Lube Sales Ebb in Early 08

September 10, 2008

Total U.S. lubricant sales volumes in the first quarter of 2008 declined 4.2 percent compared to the same period in 2007, according to the latest sale ...

U.S. Base Oil Price Report

September 3, 2008

It was another interesting week in the U.S. base oil arena. Hurricane Gustavs journey through the Gulf of Mexico had most producers preparing for the ...