In its financial report of sales by region for the first six months of 2007, Mannheim, Germany-based Fuchs reported sales revenue of 468.6 million in Europe, a 7 percent increase over the year-ago period. In Asia/Pacific, sales for the first half of 2007 totaled 124.7 million, up 4 percent. In the Americas, sales totaled 109 million, a 12 percent decline from a year ago.

Milacron
Milacrons Industrial Fluids segment, which supplies metalworking and industrial fluids, reported net income of $3.2 million, up 10 percent from the same period in 2006. The company said it expected earnings to show further growth in the years second half based on the strength of new product introductions and expanded distribution in Asian and Eastern European markets.

Quarterly sales for the segment reached $32 million, up 10 percent from the year-ago quarter. According to Milacron, the $32 million in sales was a record quarterly high for the segment, exceeding the previous peak quarter by almost 9 percent.

Sales were up in most major markets, as we continued to develop and introduce new products, including vegetable oil-based green fluids, for new applications in a variety of non-automotive industries such as aerospace and HVAC, said Ronald Brown, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Milacron.

Overall, Cincinnati-based Milacron posted a net loss of $100,000 for the quarter, compared to a $14.3 million net loss in the same period in 2006. The company attributed the improvement primarily to cost-reduction measures and to emerging markets.

We continue to achieve positive results from our key sales growth initiatives: expanding our presence in emerging markets, while focusing more attention on aftermarket services in our traditional markets of North America and Western Europe, said Brown. Milacrons orders from emerging markets are up 23 percent over last year and now constitute nearly one-quarter of our total business. And our aftermarket sales have grown another 6 percent so far this year.

Quaker Chemical
Lubricants supplier Quaker Chemical Corp. on Aug. 1 reported net income of $4.2 million, up 38.7 percent from $3 million in the year earlier period. Second quarter sales reached $137.6 million, up 15.9 percent from $118.7 million in 2006s second quarter.

The company said foreign exchange rate translation increased revenues by 4 percent for the second quarter, compared to 2006s second quarter. Quaker attributed the increase in net sales primarily to a combination of higher sales growth and volume growth, the latter mostly stemming from strong sales growth in Asia/Pacific, South America and Europe.

Quaker Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ronald Naples said the company saw progress throughout its income statement compared to the first quarter. Particularly encouraging was the volume growth we achieved in a number of geographies and markets, not just China, where weve seen strong real growth for some time, said Naples. The quarter was led by this growth combined with our efforts to improve gross margins even in the face of raw material prices that have continued to escalate. Indeed, raw material costs impose an ongoing challenge, as vegetable oils and animal fats demand grows with bio-diesel activity, even as mineral oil prices have been largely stable.