Rohmax Oil Additives, Dow Chemical and Chattem recently announced price increases for certain chemical products. Rohmaxs products are lubricant additives and synthetic base fluids. Dows products are oxygenated solvents. Chattems Hamposyl/Chattosyl brand specialty surfactants are used in lubricants and greases.
Rohmax Oil Additives on Thursday announced it would raise prices for its Viscoplex brand lubricant additives and Viscobase brand synthetic base fluids in Europe and Asia Pacific by at least 4.5 percent effective Sept. 1 or as contracts allow. It follows recent price adjustments for the products in North America.
Rohmax stated that changing market conditions in the past few months, including ongoing shortages in key raw materials such as alcohols, necessitated the price increase. The lubricant additives and base fluids each use polyalkyl methacrylate technology.
The Viscobase synthetic base stocks are designed for the formulation of high-performance, semi- and all-synthetic engine oils, gear oils, and hydraulic fluids.
The Viscoplex line includes viscosity index improvers and pour point depressants, each of which are polymers used to formulate multigrade engine oils, transmission fluids, hydraulic fluids, gear oils, other industrial lubricants and dewaxing aids.
RohMax Additives GmbH in May broke ground in Jurong Island, Singapore, for its new 10 million (U.S. $13.52 million) manufacturing facility, which will produce the Viscoplex lubricant additives for use in automotive and industrial applications. Parent company Degussa GmbH first announced the plant in February 2005. The facility, which will operate as RohMax Asia Pacific Ptd. Ltd., is scheduled to open in 2008.
Midland, Mich.-based Dow on Aug. 6 said it would raise list and off-list prices by 3 to 6 cents per pound on a number of its oxygenated solvents products in North America effective Sept. 1, or as contracts allow. The company attributed the increase primarily to continous increases in key raw material costs.
The tightening market for propylene, a key raw material for our product portfolio, is the primary driver for this increase, said Martin Sutcliffe, global business director, glycol ethers. We must raise our prices in order to maintain margins and reinvest in the future growth of our business.
Art Pavlidis, Hamposyl marketing and sales manager at Chattem Chemicals, confirmed to Lube Report that the Chattanooga, Tenn.-based specialty chemical manufacturer would increase the prices of its Hamposyl/Chattosyl line of specialty surfacants worldwide by 6 to 12 percent effective Aug. 20 or as contract terms allow. The company said the price increases were necessary because of significant increases in raw material costs, explaining that fatty acids are in tight supply because of their increased use in alternative energy projects.
The surfactants are considered corrosion inhibitors for petroleum products, including lubricating oils and greases, cutting oils, transmission fluids and drawing compounds. Its metalworking and finishing applications uses include rust preventative oils and coatings, cutting oils and drawing lubricants, hydraulic fluids and use of the surfactants in solvent degreasing and finishing.
Chattem last year purchased the Hamposyl line of surfactants from a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co. in Nashua, N.H., and transferred the production to Chattems manufacturing facility in Tennessee.