The past week brought positive financial reports from three lubricant suppliers, including the worlds leading independent. Fuchs Petrolub AG said net earnings for the first half of 2006 increased 41.8 percent from the same period of last year. Profits also rose at Quaker Chemical and Milacrons Industrial Fluids segment.
Fuchs said it earned 44.1 million in the first six months of 2006, compared to 31.1 million during the same period of last year. The English version of the companys announcement did not break out results for the second quarter, but stated that sales revenue for the first half grew 16.7 percent to 671.8 million, more than offsetting higher costs for raw materials.
Fuchs, the worlds largest independent lubricant blender, reported sales growth of at least 15 percent across all of its major geographic markets. The company, which is based in Mannheim, Germany, said it expects profits for the full year to improve at double-digit rates over 2005, as long as geopolitical events cause no major disruptions.
Quaker Chemical said Aug. 2 that it had income of $3 million for the three months ended June 30, up from $1.8 million during the same period of 2005. Net sales rose 10.9 percent to $118.7 million, due to higher volumes and selling prices. The former stemmed mostly from increased demand in the United States and China. The Conshohocken, Pa., company said increases in its own prices allowed it to maintain margins in the face of sharply higher raw material costs.
Quaker Chemical said it is cautiously optimistic that it can maintain year-over-year improvement in core earnings through the rest of 2006, but added that it is concerned about potential impacts from conflict in the Middle East.
Milacrons Industrial Fluids segment posted net income of $2.9 million in the second quarter, up from $1.9 million during the same period of 2005. Sales rose 4.3 percent to $29.3 million. Milacron is based in Cincinnati.