According to the calendar, winter does not officially start until Dec. 22, but some U.S. base oil suppliers say they have seen signs that the industry’s winter lull has already begun.
“We’ve started to seeorders tail off the last week or so,” one marketer said. “Lubricant sales normallyslow down this time of year. Plus blendersdon’t want to have too much inventory at the end of the year. I think we’re starting to see the effects of that.”
Other suppliers countered thatbase oil sales, which picked up in recent months, areholding steady.
“Our business was strong the week ofThanksgiving and seems to be holding up,” another marketer said. “We usually don’t see business drop off until the week before Christmas, if at all,and that’s about what I would expect this year.”
Base oil posted prices held steady this week. The price of crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed at $30.73 per barrel yesterday, up 85 cents from a week earlier.
Historic U.S. posted base oil prices and WTI and Brent crude spot prices are available for purchase in Excel format.