Scot Lubricants plans to renovate and move into a $2.6 million, 202,000-square-foot facility in Northampton, Pa. later this year, expanding its blending, terminaling and packaging operations.
On Jan. 6, the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority approved a $1.5 million, 15 year loan to Northampton County New Jobs Corp., on behalf of Allentown-based Scot Lubricants, to acquire and renovate the former Ponderosa Fibres facility, which had served as a deinked market pulp mill. The company will relocate 16 existing employees and create 31 new positions within three years, according to the development authority.
Tim Fritz, president and owner of Scot Lubricants, noted that the Ponderosa Fibres facility is a large concrete building that features secondary containment and railroad access. Its going to replace the existing 57,000 square foot facility, he told Lube Report. We hope to be operating out of there by the middle of the year.
Primarily, we will be moving our blending operation into the facility, and expanding it at the same time, bringing it up to new specifications, Fritz continued. Were going to be diversifying dramatically. As well as growing our blending business, were looking towards transloading and terminaling operations. Transloading involves taking product off a railcar and putting it into tank storage, he said, then loading it into either other packages or tank trailers for local distribution.
A lot of the major oil companies and chemical companies have moved their manufacturing facilities out of New Jersey down to the Gulf Coast and West Coast, Fritz explained. But they still have a big marketplace up here in the Northeast. This will afford them the opportunity to ship rail cars in here at lesser freight rates and still be able to deliver effectively.
Fritz said that in the northeast market, the lubricants industry is consolidating. There is less manufacturing going on in the Northeast, so demand for industrial lubricants is diminishing, and metalworking fluids demand is almost nonexistent, he continued. Its mostly transportation-related lubricants and service-related lubricants.
Scot Lubricants manufactures and blends motor and gear oils, automatic transmission fluids, hydraulic fluids and other lubricants. The company manufactures its own products along with products for a number of other customers. Its main product line is branded Macmillan Ring-Free. Most of our business is private label, Fritz said.