Shell plans to build a 120,000 metric tons per year blending plant in Indonesia that will produce consumer, transport, industrial and marine lubricants. The investment cost was not disclosed for the blending plant, which will be 100 percent owned by Shell. The plant will be at the Marunda Center, 22.5 kilometers north of Jakarta. The location is close to Tanjung Priok port and includes a jetty for import of base oils, Mark Gainsborough, executive vice president for Shell Global Commercial, tol...

Paraffin wax, once a near-afterthought to base oil manufacturing, today is a valuable prop to API Group I refinery margins. Due to falling Group I capacity, U.S. wax production now averages about 250,000 barrels per month, less than half of what it was in 2005. This has made for a balanced-to-snug market, and kept mid-melt paraffin prices in the $1,580 per metric ton range for much of the year. North America is a significant part of the wax scene, accounting for about one-fifth of waxes produce...

MOSCOW — Russian base oil and lubricants marketers are facing multiple challenges from the development of modern vehicles and industrial equipment, as well as from new trends of crude oil production and base oil processing, according to an industry analyst. In the passenger and commercial vehicle segments, lube manufacturers haven’t tackled problems posed by hybrid and electric-powered innovation. They will have to find the right developmental path [for lubricants] toward the needs ...

LISBON-European manufacturers of H1 lubricants for the food industry say they are concerned about what they view as potentially misleading terminology being used to label and advertise their products. At issue, according to Helga Thomas of Kluber Lubrication in Munich, is the generic term food-grade lubricant. It had been agreed that this is a term that should be avoided because it is potentially misleading, according to Thomas. Thomas made her comments last monthat an ELGI working group mee...

South Africas largest independent operator of bulk liquid storage recently disclosed it is developing plans to install new tanks. The announcement by Island View Storage is tantalizing news for a base oil market short on storage space. Still, an IVS official cautioned that the project would fall short of alleviating a bottleneck on base oil imports. From the interest shown in importing [API] Group II and III products into South Africa, this additional capacity will satisfy only a few customers...

Both the United States and European markets endured yet another dreary week, with no sign yet of the usual push for year-end space. Asia, meanwhile, continues to enjoy plenty of new requirements which are causing freights to firm on some routes. U.S. Gulf of Mexico The huge overhang of tonnage open in the U.S. Gulf is certainly a thing of the past. The current surplus is more manageable, but that it exists at all gives an impression of the lack of new business being generated, since normally a...