Joseph Clayton, Sea-Land president, said the Westlake, Ohio-based company has been distributing Polartech additives out of the United Kingdom for a number of years. It already represents the companys Polartech and Petromix brands. Polartech only sells its additives and formulated metalworking fluids as private-label products to lubricant and chemical companies.

Its a good match because they have a lot of specialty lubricant additives, and what Sea-Land does is weve been marketing into that industry for many years, Clayton told Lube Report. When they purchased the Actrachem facility from Georgia-Pacific, they asked us to handle those products as well, so its an increasing of our responsibilities.

Manchester, U.K.-based Polartech in early 2007 purchased the Georgia-Pacific Chemicals LLC facility in Bedford Park, Ill., including the Actrachem brand. The facility had capacity to produce about 15,000 metric tons per year at the time of its acquisition, which gave Polartech its own metalworking additives manufacturing presence in the United States.

The Actrachem product lines distributed by Sea-Land include lubricant polymers and additives, sulfated oils, phosphate esters, amides, emulsifier packages and corrosion inhibitors.

Clayton said the addition of the Actrachem brand helps ensure a stable supply of product for Sea-Lands customers. The distribution agreement went into effect in late October.

Were handling it with our 10 outside sales reps, and then we have two inside sales reps who are assisting, which expands their coverage so that, basically, we cover the whole United States for them, he added.