Calumet Specialty Products Partners net income for the third quarter grew substantially, compared to the year earlier quarter. For the first nine months of 2010, independent lubricant blender Fuchs also saw strong profit growth compared to the same period last year. For the quarter ending Sept. 30, Calumet Specialty Products Partners reported $21.2 million in net income, up 430 percent from $4 million in the year earlier period. The $17.2 million improvement was due primarily to a $21 million i...

Safety-Kleen Canada broke ground recently on a $26 million expansion of its Breslau, Ontario, rerefinery that will raise by 25 percent both its annual processing capacity to 191 million liters of used oil and its production capacity to 2,300 barrels per day of API Group II rerefined base oil. The expansions major components will include adding a new vacuum distillation tower as part of the Breslau refinerys distillation unit, and a fractionator in its hydrotreating unit, Dale MacIntyre, vice pr...

Milacron subsidiary Cimcool Industrial Products on Friday acquired the Starchem metalworking fluids business. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Starchem was a metalworking fluid and industrial chemical company headquartered in Mason, Ohio, near Cincinnati. According to its web site, Starchem marketed its products throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico through local and regional industrial distributors, supported by sales and service personnel at its southwest Ohio facilities...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – While the Arabian Peninsula today is home to just 600,000 tons per year of base oil refining capacity, it has nearly 2.2 million t/y of finished lubricant blending capacity, led by lubricants powerhouse United Arab Emirates. U.A.E. has 18 major blending plants and numerous smaller ones, and total blending capacity of 1.25 million t/y, T.R. Kumar, Dubai-based manager of lubricants technology with Enoc International Sales LLC, told the ICIS Middle Eastern Base...

Prista Oil Group B.V. is seeking a 65.5 million (U.S. $90.3 million) loan to fund a multi-pronged expansion that would include establishment of a quick-lube chain, new lubricant filling lines and a production plant for automotive coolants and brake fluids. Officials from the Sofia, Bulgaria-based company said they are optimistic about obtaining the loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. I am positive once we have [satisfied] the due diligence of a most reputable and co...

DUBAI – Africa has long been largely neglected by the lubricants industry, but it is beginning to attract more attention – and deserves it, according to an official from Saudi Arabian lubricant marketer Petromin. Speaking at the ICIS Middle East Base Oils and Lubricants conference Oct. 12, Petromins general manager for exports, Imran Mufti said the industrys growing focus on emerging markets is enhancing the attraction for several African nations. According to Mufti, annual lubricant...

Space has tightened in the U.S. Gulf with good demand for space reported on most routes. Europe has yet to experience any increase in volume associated with year-end inventory shifts. Asian markets are tight for prompt loading, a legacy of the storms. U.S. Gulf of MexicoNearly every route out of the U.S. Gulf is reported to be busy. The glaring exception is the transatlantic eastbound service. In spite of a bunch of aromatics quoted to Europe, vessels that are on berth seem to be having difficu...