European markets continue to thrive, and space is often scarce. Meanwhile the U.S. seems incapable of assembling sufficient export cargoes to fill even the moderate amount of open tonnage in the U.S. Gulf. Asian export is busy, but domestic Asia is slow. U.S. Gulf It has been a largely disappointing week as far as U.S. shipments go. The U.S. Gulf to Far East market remains flat. Rates seem to have stabilized to some extent – 10,000 tons of styrene from U.S. Gulf to Far East was heard to ha...

Vertex Energy Inc., of Houston, announced last week that it has agreed to buy Omega Holding Co.s rerefining assets, which include a used oil collection network, two facilities in Louisiana, the Bango Oil rerefinery in Nevada, and Cam2s lube oil blending plant in California, for nearly $50 million in cash, stock and assumed liabilities. Vertex will first acquire Omegas rerefining facilities and collection networks in Marrero, La., and Myrtle Grove, La., along with Cam2s Golden State Lubricant Wor...

A coalition that includes ILMA, the American Chemistry Council and rerefiner Safety-Kleen opposes a bill to mandate that motor oils sold in California after Jan. 1, 2017, have at least 25 percent biosynthetic content. Sen. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) introduced California Senate Bill SB 916, now titled, Lubricating oil: biosynthetic lubricants: procurement: sale, on Jan. 27. It defines a biosynthetic lubricant as a lubricating oil that contains a biobased product. The California Senate Committee on...

After climbing steadily for more than a decade, U.S. imports of base oils flattened out in 2013, the first year in 10 that did not see a gain. From January through December, 11.3 million barrels poured into the United States, versus 11.4 million barrels in 2012. The U.S. ships out more than twice the volume of base oil than it takes in though, and exports in 2013 were 26.6 million barrels, according to data released by the U.S. Energy Information Agency. Exports also hit a plateau last year, aft...

Brazils lubricant oils market reached 1.37 million tons in 2013, which represents growth of 8.3 percent over 2012. The numbers surprised mainly because of the poor national gross domestic product growth of 2.3 percent. However, some important segments showed excellent development and can account for these unexpected figures. Greases performed a little lower, with demand growing 3.6 percent to 56,000 tons in 2013. According to research done by Rio de Janeiro-based consultancy Agncia Virtual, whic...

Eastman Chemical plans to expand capacity for 2-ethylhexanol – used in lube additives – in late 2014, and Oxea started basic engineering for a 2-EH and propanol unit. Both projects are planned at sites in Texas. According to Eastman, 2-EH is an oxo derivative used in additives for lube oils and fuels. Kingsport, Tenn.-based Eastman Chemical said it will expand 2-EH capacity by 20,000 metric tons per year at its Longview, Texas site in the fourth quarter of 2014. The company completed...

Wyoming, Mich.-based Industrial Innovations has acquired Advance Products Corp.s die casting Automation division. Terms were not disclosed. The new entity will do business as Advance Automation, an Industrial Innovations company. Operations will be consolidated at a single Industrial Innovations location. With this [acquisition] we can be a one stop shop for automation and lubrication solutions across the die casting, foundry and metalworking industries, said Industrial Innovations president Tro...

Last weeks article about the impact on lubricants of low speed pre-ignition said researchers found that higher viscosity PAO showed higher LSPI. Ken Hope of Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. pointed out that this reference is comparing 8 cSt PAO to 4 cSt PAO. Ken Hope wrote: When I think of higher viscosity PAOs, the 40 and 100 cSt materials come to mind as well as the recent mPAO materials that Chevron Phillips Chemical and others produce. In rereading the Takeuchi paper from 2012 [I] found that th...