Overall U.S. consumer automotive lubricants consumption declined at an average annual rate of 9.2 percent between 2006 and 2009, but overall market value remained unchanged at $5.1 billion, consultancy Kline and Co. found. Demand will grow by 2.4 percent per year from 2009 to 2014, said George Morvey, project manager in Little Falls, N.J.-based Klines Energy Practice, during a web presentation Aug. 18. However, demand will not return to 2007 levels. In 2009, were estimating the U.S. consumer a...

The API Lubricants Group hasballoted a definition ofAPI GL-4 gear oil as a “Service Designation not in Current Use,” which in essence would make such oils obsolete. The ballot to amend definitions contained in API Publication 1560, “Lubricant Service Designations for Automotive Manual Transmissions, Manual Transaxles, and Transaxles,” closed on July 31. Itgarnered 12 votes to approve, andone disapproval, with Chevron as the lone dissenter. GL-4 gear oils are most often...

Pochteca Group will distribute Shell brand lubricants for the industrial and transportation segments throughout the Mexican Republic under a recently signed macro distribution agreement. What that means is Pochteca Group will be in charge of sales, marketing, storage and distribution of Shell branded lubricants in Mexico, Barbara Blakely, senior communications official for Shell Mexico, told Lube Report. There is a global Shell Lubricants strategy to increase the presence of its brands in the k...

World Fuel Services Inc. will acquire Western Petroleum Co., including its wholesale lubricants distribution business, for $95 million. Western distributes BP Lubricants, Castrol, Air BP, Conoco and ExxonMobil Aviation lubricants, along with Prestone antifreeze. Under the agreement announced Monday, World Fuel will acquire Western Petroleums capital stock. Along with the lubricants distribution business, World Fuel will also get Westerns wholesale motor fuel distribution and branded aviation f...

Monson Co. recently began distributing BASFs polyalkylene glycol base stocks and finished formulations. The extensive line includes more than 50 products, said Doug Hiple, Monsons industry manager for lubricants and metalworking. It encompasses their whole PAG line for synthetic lubricants, and that includes their PAG base stocks, what they call thickeners, concentrates, and their finished lubricant product line, Hiple told Lube Report. And within each of those categories, there are many produc...

Two British scientists have developed a marine lubricant condition monitoring system that works while at sea and could prove a hit for commercial long haul ships such as cruisers, oil tankers or even national navy ships. The Posseidon (spelled with a second s) system features a sensor unit that monitors the main properties of the lubricating oil – sometimes up to 40 metric tons – that circulates in a ships engine. It monitors the lubricants viscosity, water-in-oil, base number and i...