Volume 14 Issue 17
Finnish Rerefiner Goes Belly-up
April 23, 2014Finnish rerefiner L&T Recoil Oy and parent company EcoStream Ltd. filed for bankruptcy at the end of March, a former company official confirmed to Lube Report, and an estate administrator is seeking buyers for assets that include a rerefinery in Hamina, Finland. L&T Recoil Oy and its then joint venture partner EcoStream opened a 45 million (now U.S. $62.2 million) rerefinery in 2009. With 1,200 b/d of API Group II capacity, the plant was fed by used lubricants collected within the Nord...
U.S. Base Oil Snapshot
April 23, 2014Base oil capacity in the United States totaled 241,500 barrels per day on Jan. 1, compared to 217,300 b/d a year earlier, according to American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers 2014 Lubricating Oil and Wax Capacities Report. The report contains data on base oil and wax plants in the United States, Canada and Latin America. For 2014, U.S. virgin API Group I capacity stood at 65,100 b/d, up from 63,600 b/d last year. Group II and III reached 128,300 b/d, an increase of 22,000 b/d over last ...
Scam Targets NLGI Members
April 23, 2014The National Lubricating Grease Institute has initiated legal action against a scam group claiming theyve been hired to help members book hotel rooms for NLGIs annual meeting. For the second consecutive year, Exhibitors Housing Services has preyed on NLGI members using email and telephone contact information from the organizations 2013 annual meeting attendee list, which was published on NLGIs website last year. The scammers try to collect credit card information from potential attendees, but do...
Albemarle Sells Antioxidants Business
April 23, 2014SI Group signed a deal to acquire Albemarles antioxidants, ibuprofen and related business and assets, including a lubricant antioxidants line. Terms were not disclosed. Subject to approvals, the acquisition is expected to be completed later this year. The transaction includes Albemarles manufacturing sites in Orangeburg, S.C., and in Jinshan, China. It also includes Albemarles applications and technical support capabilities in Shanghai, China, and in Baton Rouge, La. Only Orangeburg is involved ...
Investment Firm to Buy VeroLube
April 23, 2014Toronto-based investment firm Aumento Capital IV Corp. entered into an agreement to purchase aspiring rerefiner VeroLubes assets for an undisclosed amount. After recently acquiring used oil collector Thermo Fluids Inc. for around $175 million last month, and announcing that it will build two rerefineries – one in Alberta, Canada, and one in Houston, Texas – VeroLube agreed to divest all its shares to Aumento in exchange for Aumentos shares on a one-for-one basis. Expected to close th...
Briefly Noted
April 23, 2014The California Senate gutted a bill this week that would have required use of motor oils with at least 25 percent biosynthetic content starting in 2017. The U.S. federal court of Charleston, S.C., reduced former Delfin Group USA president Markos Baghdasarians prison sentence for exporting lubricants to Iran from three years to two years.