Finished lubricants demand in Germany, including process oils, fell 21% in September, continuing a year-long trend of monthly decreases, as only transformer oils and greases for cars showed upticks, according to government agency data released today.
Lube sales in the country dropped to 44,280 metric tons in September, compared to 55,711 tons in the same month last year, Germany’s Federal Office of Economics and Export Control reported.
All metalworking oils categories posted declines of more than 70%, while hydraulic oil and machine oils sported drops of more than 40%.
Among metalworking oils, sales of non-water-miscible oils fell 82% to 303 tons, water-miscible oils consumption dropped 81% to 346 tons, and anti-corrosion oils demand plummeted 78% to 69 tons.
Consumption of hydraulic oils fell 48% to 3,932 tons, while demand for machine oils dropped 44% to 869 tons.
All categories of gear oils showed decreases – car gear oils by 22% to 2,675 tons, industrial gear oils by 20% to 1,537 tons and automatic transmission fluids by 9% to 4,543 tons.
Turbine oil demand fell 18% to 240 tons, while compressor oil sales decreased 7% to 978 tons.
Grease consumption decreased 15% to 1,928 tons.
The largest category, motor oils, saw demand decline 12% to 16,971 tons.
Swimming upstream with increases were transformer oil sales, rising 40% to 1,373 tons, and greases for cars, with a 7% increase to 559 tons.
Process oil consumption stayed flat at 8,487 tons.