Several routes out of the U.S. are commanding higher freights, but most are unchanged. Europe has been very slow, while Asia is steady, especially on deep-sea routes. U.S. Gulf Things have been on hold for a while on the U.S. Gulf-to-Asia trades, but this is understandable in light of the approaching Asian holidays, as well as the tight vessel situation in the U.S. Gulf, which has been driving up freight rates for a couple of weeks already. Transatlantic eastbound is firm, thanks to a fair amoun...

U.S. refinery production of base oils in the years first half reached 28.6 million barrels. Thats a gain of 2.9 percent over the 27.8 million barrels produced in the same period in 2013. Paraffinic base stock output from January-June this year amounted to 24 million barrels, representing 86 percent of the total, while naphthenic base stock production was 4.6 million barrels, according to data released last month by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Although the year began with intimati...

The Lubricant Producers Association of Nigeria and the Nigeria Customs Service resolved an impasse caused when the agency continued to charge a 10 percent base oil import tariff after a regulation change cut it to 5 percent. The controversy stemmed from a government regulation (Code 2710.1939.00) for base oil, described as Other in an amended tariff line, a loophole Lupan alleged the Nigerian Customs Service had exploited to insist on continuing to charge the previous import duty of 10 percent. ...

ALICANTE, Spain – At around 35 million metric tons per year, global base oil demand has been depressed in the past few years and it is expected to rise to about 37 million t/y by 2020, according to a consultancy. At the same time, surpluses of API Group II and III base oils will squeeze more Group I out of the market. Technical Demand vs Actual Production IHS Energy Director of Downstream Consulting John Leavens addressed the ACI European Base Oils and Lubricants conference about technical...

Rivals in the offshore drilling fluids market, Niche Products and MacDermid Offshore Solutions, settled a U.S. lawsuit in which the former accused the latter of lying to mutual customers about its products formulations. Litigation continues in the United Kingdom, where Niche is based and MacDermids products are manufactured. The lawsuit, filed by MacDermid in August 2012 in the U.S. District Court of Southern Texas, alleged that Niche Products ran a smear campaign against MacDermid using trade s...

Lube manufacturer Chem-Trend, a Freudenberg Group business unit, said last week that major expansion projects in China and India will be completed over the next two years. The $24 million expansion in Qingpu, China, in partnership with sister company Kluber Lubrication, includes a new research and development center that will enable the company to develop distinct product solutions for customers in the region, as well as areas for application testing and engineering, and special laboratories ded...

Russian state-owned oil major Rosneft and petrochemicals company Sibur signed a five-year lubricants development and supply deal. Under the five-year agreement, the parties pledged to evaluate Siburs demand for lubricants used in its facilities. The companies will jointly work on the development of lubricants that can meet Siburs requirements, Rosneft said in a recent press release. We plan to conduct development of joint projects aimed at lubricant production and import substitution. Both compa...