Volume 14 Issue 26

SSY Base Oil Shipping Report

Asian spot markets are not exactly thriving, but they are several steps ahead of Europe, whereas the U.S. lags a long way behind both. Fortunately for owners, contractual demand is reasonably solid everywhere, so freight levels are mostly unaltered. U.S. Gulf of Mexico It is hard to fathom out why the U.S. shipping market is in such doldrums, but effectively it boils down to uncompetitive product pricing, coupled with weak demand outside of the U.S. Those two factors are probably the main reaso...

Phillips 66 Picks Spectrum

Phillips 66 agreed to acquire Spectrum Corp., an independent blender, packager and marketer of specialty lubricants. Terms were not disclosed. There are approximately 225 employees working at Spectrum today who will become Phillips 66 employees upon the closing of the transaction, a Phillips 66 Lubricants spokesman told Lube Report. Spectrum has three manufacturing locations (Selmer, Tenn.; Waukesha, Wisc.; and Benicia, Calif.) as well as storage and distribution centers and offices in several s...

NLGI Airs Grease Data

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – North Americas lubricating grease companies churned out 466 million pounds of grease in 2013, according to newly released data from the National Lubricating Grease Institute. Europes grease manufacturers reported their output at 439 million pounds for the year. And even added together, the two continents did not top Chinas grease production, according to the NLGI 2013 Grease Production Survey. Tyler Jark, a member of the NLGI Board of Directors, gave an overview ...

Lube Production Stalls in Russia

Russian lubricants production stagnated in 2013 because of the economic slowdown caused by slow industrial output and a weak ruble, and is forecasted to stay sluggish through 2016, an industry event heard. In 2013 Russia produced 2.3 million metric tons of base oils and lubricants combined, the same volume as in 2012, according to InfoTek Moscow consultancy. Base oils accounted for 63 percent of the volume in 2013, while finished lubricants made up the remaining 37 percent, Boris Sobolev, head o...

Nigeria Turns Up Heat on Illegal Blenders

Nigerias Department of Petroleum Resources arrested the operator of an illegal lubricant blending plant in Kontagora, Niger State, in northern central Nigeria. We were on a normal filling station routine check in Kontagora, when we saw a tank in the bush, which was quite unusual and we branched to see what was happening; only for us to discover that there was a bigger lubricant blending plant operating there, Mohammed Saidu, Zonal Public Relations of the DPR, told Lube Report in his office in Ab...

Fuchs Acquires U.K. Lubes Maker

Fuchs Petrolub SE acquired the lubricants business of Batoyle Freedom Group in the United Kingdom on June 20 and will integrate it into its subsidiary Fuchs Lubricants (UK). Terms were not disclosed. Batoyle and Freedom, based in Huddersfield, recorded combined sales of 15 million (U.S. $20.4 million) in financial year 2013-2014. Following a transition period, manufacturing will be integrated into Fuchs’ plant in Hanley. Mannheim, Germany-based Fuchs said in a news release that it made the...

PPC Lubricants Gets Gress

PPC Lubricants acquired the lubricants division of distributor Jay Gress Inc. in southeastern Pennsylvania. The cost was not disclosed. This is an exciting opportunity for PPC to solidify its position in eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and the eastern shores of Maryland and Delaware, PPC Lubricants President David Klinger said in an announcement on his Jonestown, Pa.-based companys online blog. Jay Gress is based in Conshohocken, Pa. Klinger noted that Jay Gress has been a family owned and oper...

Briefly Noted

E3 Services and Solutions of Memphis, Tenn., launched Evolution Lubricants and Technologies to provide lubricants for industrial, automotive, and oil and gas markets. Western Marketing will distribute BP Lubricants USAs Castrol packaged and bulk lubricants in the Dallas-Fort Worth market. Oxea will raise prices on NPG and TMP, used in synthetic lubricants, by $50 per metric ton in Asia and Latin America effective July 1.

Publishers Note: 2014 Base Stock Guide Is Here

The completely updated 2014 Guide to Global Base Oil Refining is now available from LubesnGreases, listing 168 plants by owner, location and capacity. See www.BaseStockGuides.com.