Volume 10 Issue 29

SSY Base Oil Shipping Report

Prompt space has tightened in the U.S. Gulf due to a slight upsurge in demand. Most European routes remain overtonnaged, and rates are under further downward pressure. Asia is the pick of the bunch and is the preferred location to keep ships. U.S. Gulf of Mexico There has been a bit of a run on July space from the U.S. Gulf. Transatlantic eastbound scooped up a number of ships, chiefly with styrene, the rates for which are in the mid $40s per ton for 5,000 ton lots out of Houston. Ethanol is ag...

Heartland Expands in Cajun Country

Heartland Automotive Services, the largest U.S. Jiffy Lube franchisee, acquired Cajun Lube and CCR Lubes, operator of 12 Jiffy Lube retail service centers in Louisiana. Adding the Cajun Lube stores will strengthen Heartlands base in the Southern United States in preparation for future expansion. The Cajun Lube stores represent a significant opportunity for our company, and the geographic locations create synergy with our future plans, said Brett Pondon, Heartland chief executive officer. We are...

Quaker Sees Growth in Hot Rolling Oil

Quaker Chemical acquired the former D.A. Stuart U.S. aluminum hot rolling oil business from Houghton International, including rights to sell the product portfolio internationally. Terms were not disclosed. Houghton, of Valley Forge, Pa., acquired D.A. Stuart in September 2008. Quaker previously had a very small share of the aluminum hot rolling oil market, said Joseph Berquist, vice president and managing director of Quakers North American operations. The acquisition gives us a leading positio...

Dirty Lubes Plague Navy Ship

Lube oil system contamination caused damage to the amphibious transport dock ship San Antonios diesel engines that may cost $7.5 million to correct, a recent U.S. Navy investigation concluded. The operational impact is such that repairs may preclude San Antonio executing her next scheduled deployment, the report found. The San Antonio (LPD 17) is a 684-foot, 25,000-ton vessel equipped with four sequentially turbocharged diesel engines. According to the Navy, it carries about 360 crewmembers and...

Siberian Base Oil Plant Planned

ZapSib NPZ plans to build a new $1 billion low-sulfur fuel refinery that will include a base oil plant in Tomsk, in western Siberia. Created in February 2010 to implement the refinery project, ZapSib NPZ is a joint venture among several Moscow investors, the companys spokesman told Lube Report. He declined to provide further details on the base oil plant due to the early phase of the project. The company recently selected the refinery developer. The refinerys developmental project should be read...

Shell Embraces, Valvoline Snubs Dexos

While Shell will offer engine oils under its General Motors Dexos license and more than 20 other marketers have applied for licenses, Valvoline has given Dexos the cold shoulder, citing cost concerns. Dexos 2, designed for use in passenger car diesel engines, launched last year in Europe. Its gasoline-fueled counterpart, Dexos 1, must be available globally for GMs 2011 model year vehicles. The Dexos specifications use performance tests from ILSAC and Europes ACEA, plus some proprietary GM tests....