The last few weeks of December passed without any great drama. Most ships in all the key regions managed to find employment over the holiday period, while most cargo requirements were covered too. U.S. Gulf There has not been a great deal of fixing over the past week in the Americas. Some attribute this to a lack of vessels in the area, but in fact, there have been the usual owners with pretty much an unchanged fleet program. It is simply that the level of contractual demand picked up in a gradu...

Announcements by Clean Harbors and Vertex Energy last week suggest a trend in the U.S. used oil collection business towards paying no fee or charging for collecting used oil. Clean Harbors announced Dec. 18 that its Safety-Kleen rerefining business is eliminating its pay-for-oil program and replacing it with either a zero-pay or charge-for-oil rate structure, citing adverse conditions in the base oil marketplace. On Dec. 19 rerefiner and used oil collector Vertex Energy said it would move to a s...

FAJARDO, Puerto Rico-With feedstock costs rising and demand for used oil-derived products sinking, the used oil market is upside down, said recycling industry consultant Roy Schumacher. At NORA’s annual event last month, he urged players to rethink and revise used oil acquisition costs. After several presentations detailed the grim realities of the United States current used oil market at the Association of Responsible Recyclers annual trade show and conference here in November, Schumacher...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a Significant New Rule under the Toxic Substances Control Act for alkanes C12-13, chloro, a short-chain chlorinated paraffin. In the past, SCCPs were used in a variety of industrial applications, primarily as lubricants and coolants in metal cutting and metal forming operations. SCCPs are no longer in use. The rule requires manufacturers – including importers – and processors of this C12-13 SCCP to notify EPA at least 90 days before sta...

Gazprom Neft Lubricants launched an automated factory fill facility at a Mercedes-Benz heavy duty vehicle assembling plant in Tatarstan, Russia. The fully automated filling unit uses Gazproms proprietary Fluid Solution technology and is specially developed for Mercedes-Benz Trucks Vostok, a Russian joint venture manufacturer of trucks and other automotive machinery. The Dec. 18 launch ceremony was attended by Alexandr Trukhan, Gazprom Neft Lubricants general director, and Carsten Bothmann, chief...

Chevron notified U.S. customers Dec. 19 that prices for Chevron brand finished lubricants, gear oils and greases will generally decrease by up to 3.5 percent effective Feb. 6, 2015, for most SKUs. Coolants and fuel additives are excluded from the decrease.