Calumet Specialty Products Partners net income for the third quarter grew substantially, compared to the year earlier quarter. For the first nine months of 2010, independent lubricant blender Fuchs also saw strong profit growth compared to the same period last year.
For the quarter ending Sept. 30, Calumet Specialty Products Partners reported $21.2 million in net income, up 430 percent from $4 million in the year earlier period. The $17.2 million improvement was due primarily to a $21 million increase in gross profit. Our production levels and gross profit have continued to improve in each quarter this year, said Calumet CEO and President Bill Grube. We continue to focus on increased run rates to meet higher demand for our specialty products.
Third quarter sales for Calumet, based in Indianapolis, reached $595.3 million, up nearly 21 percent from $492.4 million in 2009s third quarter.
Third quarter specialty products sales volumes reached 32,152 barrels per day, up 23.1 percent from the year earlier period. The company attributed the increase primarily to improvements in overall demand as a result of improved economic conditions and to the addition of sales volumes under Calumets agreements with LyondellBasell entered into during 2009s fourth quarter. Calumets specialty products segment sales volumes in the third quarter included 14,707 b/d of lubricating oils, 10,715 b/d of solvents and 1,307 b/d of waxes.
Fuchs Petrolub Group reported net profit of 132.7 million (U.S. $188.9 million) for the first nine months of 2010, up more than 62 percent from 81.8 million during the same period in 2009.
All of Fuchs regions experienced improved revenues for the first nine months of 2010, compared to the same period last year. During the first nine months, revenue rose 17.5 percent to 650.8 million in Europe, grew 33.1 percent to 281 million in Asia-Pacific and Africa, and jumped 41.3 percent to 183.6 million in North and South America.
The overall economic situation in the third quarter of 2010 saw better development in many global regions than companies and economic research institutes were predicting in the first half of the year, Mannheim-Germany-based Fuchs pointed out.
While the independent lubricant blender expects to see sound business development in the fourth quarter this year, the downward trend in the gross margin shows that the increases in raw material prices are also having an effect. Favorable development of sales revenues and less than proportionate expected cost increases were largely able to compensate the downward trend in gross margins in the third quarter, the company said.