Pilot Chemical and BASF each announced price increases for chemicals used in manufacturing of metalworking fluids and lubricants, Dow raised prices on a variety of surfactants and polyethylene glycols, and Lanxess upped prices for its entire line of basic chemicals.
Lanxess basic chemicals business on Thursday said it will increase its prices worldwide immediately for its entire product portfolio by a minimum of7 percent. Its main product groups include chlorobenzenes, chlorotoluenes and cresols, nitrotoluenes, polyols and oxidation products (including trimethylolpropane used in production of synthetic lubricants), benzyl products and inorganic acids.
The recent development in oil prices is resulting in significant higher costs for energy as well as for related raw materials, said Torsten Hauschild, head of marketing for Leverkusen, Germany-based Lanxess basic chemicals unit. It operates several production sites in Germany, China and the United States.
Horgen, Switzerland-based Dow Polyglycols and Surfactants on June 24 announced price increases of 3 percent on Triton and Tergitol specialty surfactants, and of 5 percent on Carbowax industrial fluid polyethylene glycols, and on Dowfax surfacants, including copolymers and derivatives.
This price increase is critical to help offset the continuous rise in costs of energy and of raw materials needed to manufacture our products, said John Davidson, product marketing manager for Dow Polyglycols and Surfactants, a business group within Dow Chemical Co. and its affiliates, including Dow Europe GmbH.
Ludwigshafen, Germany-based BASF on June 24 said it would increase prices immediately in Europe by 50 (U.S. $70) per metric ton on monoethanolamine and diethanolamine, and 60/t on triethanolamine. Those ethanolamines are intermediates used amongst others in the manufacture of products that include lubricants, agrochemicals and wood preservatives, surfactants for detergents and cleaning products, and process chemicals for gas treatment. The price increases apply to current supply agreements as allowed under their terms and conditions, the company said.
BASF produces ethanolamines at plants in its Verbund sites in Ludwigshafen, Germany, and Antwerp, Belgium.
Cincinnati-based specialty chemical supplier Pilot on June 17 announced price increases effective July 1 or as contracts allow on several chemicals used in metalworking fluids. Those include increases of 2 to 4 cents per pound on Aristonate sulfonates, 3 to 4 cents per pound on Aristonic acids, 2 to 11 cents per pound for Calimulse emulsion aids and 2.5 to 14 cents per pound on Calsoft sulfonates and sulfonic acids.