Calumet Specialty Products reported a steep drop in earnings for the third quarter, Quaker Chemical saw an increase in quarterly earnings, Milacrons Industrial Fluids segments third-quarter earnings edged down, while Fuchs Petrolub posted a gain for 2008s first nine months, all compared to the year-earlier periods.
Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP on Nov. 5 reported a $12.5 million net loss for the third quarter, compared to net income of $9.5 million in 2007s third quarter. The refiner said one reason for the net loss was increased interest expense of $9.3 million, due primarily to higher debt levels from financing both the Penreco acquisition, which closed in January 2008, as well as costs related to the completion of the Shreveport refinery expansion project, which was operational in May 2008.
Sales revenue for Calumet rose 69 percent to $724.4 million in the third quarter, compared to 2007s third quarter.
Calumet said it produced more specialty products – base oils, waxes, solvents and asphalt – in the third quarter compared to the year-earlier period, again primarily because of the Shreveport refinery expansions completion, and the purchase of Penreco. Base oil output rose 23.1 percent to 13,257 barrels per day and solvents production rose 47 percent to 7,779 b/d from a year earlier, while wax production rose 18 percent to 1,518 b/d.
Fuchs
Fuchs Petrolub last week announced net profits of 94.1 million (U.S. $120.1 million) for the first nine months of 2008, up 7.9 percent from 87.2 million during the first nine months of 2007. The Mannheim, Germany-based lubricant supplier reports cumulative financial data over the course of its fiscal year, rather than by individual quarter.
Sales revenue for the first three quarters of 2008 totaled 1.1 billion ($1.4 billion), up 5 percent from 1 billion in the year earlier period. The company attributed the increase to an expansion of business activities, and to price adjustments. Fuchs opened a new lubricants plant in Shanghai in September, and late this year plans to start construction on a new lubes plant in India.
Sales revenues for Fuchs grew by 5.6 percent in Europe, and by 12.2 percent in the Asia-Pacific and Africa region, compared to 2007s first three quarters. In North and South America, revenue declined 4 percent in the first three quarters of this year, compared to the year-earlier period.
Quaker Chemical
Conshohocken, Pa.-based Quaker Chemical on Oct. 28 said its net income reached $4.4 million for the third quarter, up 40 percent from the year-ago quarter.
Quakers third-quarter sales totaled $159.5 million, up 13 percent from $140.7 million in 2007s third quarter. The company attributed the increase primarily to higher sales prices and to foreign exchange rate translation, which increased revenues by 5 percent.
Milacron
Milacrons Industrial Fluids segment, which supplies metalworking and industrial fluids, on Nov. 5 reported earnings of $3.4 million for the third quarter, a 0.3 percent decrease from $3.5 million in the year-earlier quarter. The timing of material cost increases outpaced pricing and other cost reduction initiatives within the quarter, the Cincinnati-based company said.
The segments third quarter sales reached $33 million, up 7 percent from $30.8 million in the year-earlier period. According to Milacron, currency translation effects accounted for two-thirds of the increase.