U.S. markets are more dynamic this week, especially the routes into the East. Europe has hit a slow patch, but Asia is avoiding the summer doldrums so far. U.S. Gulf The last couple of days have seen freights rise considerably on the U.S. Gulf to Far East route as demand for space has finally overtaken the supply of ships. This situation has been brewing for several weeks but every time it came close to happening, something occurred on product pricing or availability which caused charterers to ...

Radco Industries recently opened a 28,000 square foot facility in Batavia, Ill., from which the company will be positioned to meet increased demand and to grow its heat transfer fluids business, according to a recent news release. The new facility will offer only increased heat transfer fluids initially, but will eventually include the capacity to manufacture many of the companys line of military-spec lubricants as well as yet-to-be introduced products, CEO Mike Damiani told Lube Report. The ...

Earlier this month, Japan-based petroleum company Idemitsu Kosan announced that its lubricants subsidiary in China, Idemitsu Lube China, will open a new sales office in Chongqing – a massive city in southwest China with a population nearing 30 million people. The new office in Chongqing will open up another important part of the Chinese lube market to Idemitsu which also has sales posts in Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Changchun. The move to Chongqing also provides Idemitsu with more r...

QualiChem, which manufactures metalworking fluids and water treatment chemicals, announced last week it has expanded its headquarters, laboratory and manufacturing facilities in Salem, Va. The expansion will support a 300 percent increase in manufacturing output over the next few years. The company increased the total square footage of facilities by 70 percent. The building now includes 35 percent more space for quality control, research and development laboratories and manufacturing, and 50 p...

SINGAPORE – Thailand is a fiercely competitive lubricant market, where makers of 170 brands are expected to sell close to 610 million liters of finished lubes in 2013. Songkrit Boonyabaramee, vice president for lubricants marketing and technical service with government-owned PTT Public Co. Ltd., offered an insiders view of his countrys lubricant and base oil markets at the ICIS Asian Base Oils & Lubricants Conference here in late June. Finished lubricant sales volumes have risen from...

This week brought a mixed bag of financial reports for the recent quarter from Valvoline, SK Lubricants, S-Oil, Heritage-Crystal Clean and Quaker Chemical. Valvoline Parent company Ashland reported its Consumer Markets (Valvoline) segment posted operating income of $77 million for the three months ending June 30 (the third quarter of Ashlands fiscal year), up 30.5 percent from $59 million in the year-earlier quarter. Valvolines sales for the quarter reached $513 million, twitching down from the...

Croda International on Monday said it received Chinese regulatory approval to acquire a 65 percent equity interest in specialty derivatives maker Sichuan Sipo Chemical for 38.2 million (U.S. $58.6 million). Croda will acquire the majority stake from Sichuan Forever Holding Co. Ltd., which will be a minority owner of Sipo, with a 35 percent share. Established in 1993 and based in Mianyang City, Sichuan Province, Sipo makes derivatives from natural raw materials such as vegetable oil. Its products...