Ashlandis building a packaging and blending plant for Valvoline automotive, industrial and heavy-duty lubricants on a 10-acre site in India, with initial production capacity of 100 million liters per year. The plant will be in the Ambernath Industrial Area near Mumbai, according to the announcement by Ashland India Private Ltd. last week. Construction was scheduled to start this month, with completion targeted for late 2011. Valvoline Cummins Ltd., a joint venture formed in 1998 between Ashland...

MOSCOW – India and China have become the most important base oil markets, with Russia growing into a crucial supplier for the region, industry observers told a World Refining Association conference here last month. The base oil market is becoming more global then ever, speakers said, and its dynamics and the behavior of the traders are changing. Asias economic growth is a main driver behind these changes, the Base Oil and Lubricants in Russia and CIS conference heard. According to Purvin a...

Afton Chemical, NewMarkets petroleum additives segment, reported $70.4 million in operating profit for the quarter ending March 31, up 41 percent from $50.1 million in 2009s first quarter. The increase reflects the benefit of higher lubricant additives operating profits, said Thomas Gottwald, president and CEO of Richmond, Va.-based New Market. The petroleum additives segment totaled $389.3 million in revenue for the first quarter, up 16 percent from $334.8 million in the year-ago period. Ship...

Sales and operating income rose at Ashland and its Valvoline business segment in the quarter ending March 31, compared to the year-ago quarter, but the company’s profits dipped 54 percent. Ashlands Consumer Markets (Valvoline) segment reported sales of $430 million in the quarter ending March 31, the second quarter of the companys 2010 fiscal year, a 5.7 percent increase over the year-ago period. Valvolines operating income was $69 million, a 4.5 percent increase. Total lubricant volumes ...

Metalworking fluid manufacturers and marketers need to check with their steel drum suppliers, to be sure they are not using sodium nitrite as a final rinse to prevent rust. Nitrites in the rust inhibitor can react with secondary amines in metalworking fluids, forming carcinogenic nitrosamines. At its Management Forum in San Diego earlier this month, the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Associations Safety, Health, Environmental and Regulatory Affairs Committee reminded all companies handling...

Pennsylvania assessed a $22,000 penalty against a natural gas storage firm over two industrial lubricants discharges at a compressor station in August and October 2009. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection recently issued two violation notices to Steckman Ridge LP over the incidents at its Clearville Quarles Compressor Station in Monroe Township, Bedford County. During compressor shutdowns on Aug. 23 and Oct. 26, natural gas was vented into the atmosphere, the agency stated....

The general mood in the shipping market is that demand for space is shrinking and the surplus of vessels is causing rates to weaken. This is apparent in the Americas and to a lesser extent in Europe. Asia is stable so far. U.S. Gulf of Mexico Quite a lot of tonnage is accumulating in the U.S. Gulf in May which is having a negative impact on freights in most directions out of the United States. The one exception is the Gulf-to-east coast of Mexico lane where contractual demand is fairly solid. T...