Industrial process fluid company Quaker Houghton broke ground last week on a new manufacturing facility in Zhangjiagang, China. The facility will expand the company’s production footprint in the region when it comes online in the second quarter of 2026.

Lubricant sales in Thailand are expected to recover to pre-Covid levels, said an official from the Department of Energy Business in Thailand. Thailand was the second country to report a case of COVID-19 in early 2020. After initially being able to contain the spread of the disease, subsequent waves ravaged public health. The resulting loss of life, jobs, businesses and income battered the economy, including lubricants. Before Covid, engine oil sales were around 300 million liters per year in 20...

Base oil exports from South Korea tanked in June, falling 4% from the same month of 2023, when the quantity was also exceptionally meager.

Ingevity Corp. ended its crude tall oil purchase agreement with GP Pine Chemicals LLC after several years of partnership, citing a strategic realignment of its performance chemicals business. The termination is effective immediately and will cost Ingevity U.S.$100 million in breakup fees, paid in two instalments, with construction materials and paper company Georgia-Pacific, GP Pine Chemicals’ parent. Tall oil is a wood-pulping byproduct that contains fatty acids, among other substances. ...

Chinese private refiner Bohui ceased operation of its aromatic extraction and treated distillate aromatic extract units after local tax authorities slapped it with a bill for unpaid consumption tax. The company said it would try everything it could to start the units up again and stay in business but in the meantime is laying off workers and cutting wages. Until June 30, 2023, there was no such consumption tax on heavy aromatics. But the national tax office and finance ministry jointly issued a...

Volkswagen and BMW may be able to persuade the European Commission to lower tariffs on the electric vehicles they make in China and import into Europe.