Adrian Brown is away. His column will reappear in the Dec. 6 edition of Lube Report Asia.

The United States-China trade war presents an opportunity for Chinese white oil suppliers to grab market share in their domestic market, gaining ground on importers from the U.S. and elsewhere, according to attendees at an industry conference last week. They added that Chinese companies can leverage long-term advantage by improving the quality of their products.

Indonesia has enough lubricant blending capacity to meet domestic demand, but because of high levels of imports it utilizes only half of that capacity, according to data released recently by the national Ministry of Industry.

Canadian convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard has made a takeover offer for Caltex Australia, one of Australias biggest lubricant and grease suppliers, the latter announced this week.