SAE International has fully approved a new viscosity grade. SAE 16 will take its place this spring in the SAE J300 Standard as a lighter-weight alternative to SAE 20 and other non-winter engine oil grades. The SAE J300 Engine Oil Viscosity Classification Task Force agreed on the limits for the new grade last summer, according to Mike Covitch of Lubrizol, who chairs the task force. SAE 16 then was balloted through SAE Technical Committee 1 on Engine Oils, and recently advanced to full approval, ...

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. widened a recall on Dec. 20 for an oil leak issue on vehicles sold in Japan to about 1.7 million vehicles, prompting a rebuke from the countrys transport ministry. The recall covers eight Mitsubishi models produced between 1996 through 2004, the company said, adding that it would cost the firm about 7.5 billion yen (U.S. $86.8 million). It has been a rough decade for one of Japans most well-known automakers. Recent reports indicate that Mitsubishi passively neglected to ...

U.S. technical, laboratory and R&D managers who responded to the LubesnGreases 2012 Lubricants Industry Salary Survey said they earn an average of $121,400. The median compensation reported was $114,000. In 2010, the technical managers who responded to the survey, which is conducted every other year, reported average compensation of $112,800 a year. The median was $102,000. That suggests a positive trend for technical managers pay, but the magazines editors emphasize that direct compariso...

JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Petro-Canada, the Americas only major producer of both API Group II and Group III base oils, says the next five to seven years will see no radical changes in base oil requirements, but adapting production to market needs will be essential. Petro-Canada Lubricants Doug Irvine, category manager for base oils and process oils, and Luc Girard, research associate for passenger car engine oils and automatic transmission fluids, gave their perspective on base oil requirements...

Large investments in infrastructure would greatly benefit Africas lubricants industry by creating additional demand for construction projects and improving transportation and better energy reliability. That was the conclusion of a panel discussion on lubricant trading at the first ICIS Africa base oils conference in Durban, South Africa, in November. Cliff Classen, managing director of Orbichem, South Africa, set the tone for the session, when he echoed the statement of Donald Kabruka, presiden...