Adrian Brown is away this week. Adrian Brown is a senior market analyst for chemicals and base oils with SSY Shipbrokers, London. Information about SSY can be found atwww.ssyonline.com. Adrian Brown, in the U.K., can be reached atfix@ssychems.comor by phone at +44 12 0750 7507. In the London office SSYs Ian Roberts can be reached atfix@ssychems.comor +44 20 7977 7560 and in Singapore Jordi Maymi at +65 6854 7127.

Safety-Kleens parent company on Monday announced it will begin charging to collect used oil from all non-contract generators and will expand its application of a service call surcharge. The companys actions reinforce the markets emerging trend away from pay-for-oil collection. The recent decline in crude oil pricing, along with associated decreases in fuel and base oil pricing, have materially affected the values of our recycled fuel oil and rerefined products, Safety-Kleen President Jerry Corre...

The Russian government further lowered its lubricant export tax, due to low average crude oil prices on international markets in July and August. The new petrochemical industry taxation rule, that became effective Jan. 1, envisions monthly indexation of the export duty, tied to crude oil price fluctuations on international markets. On Sept. 1 the crude oil export tax came down to U.S. $109.20 per ton, almost 18 percent less than the August tax, state news agency Tass reported last week. Accordin...

Nynas recorded a steep second quarter drop in operational cash flow for its naphthenics unit due to unfortunate results from oil and currency hedges. The companys naphthenics business unit, which supplies mostly naphthenic base oils, posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of 49 million Swedish krona (U.S. $5.8 million) for the three months ended June 30, a drop of 73 percent from the same period of 2014. EBITDA for the companys other business unit, which supplies b...

Russian Gazpromneft Lubricants sealed a factory-fill agreement with Kazakh car and machinery maker Agromash Holding. Under the deal, Gazprom is significantly increasing its finished lube shipments to the car assembly enterprise, which makes such brands as Peugeot, Toyota, Hyundai, SsangYong and Iveco, along with Agromash. This deal includes supply of motor and hydraulic oils, antifreeze and other products for passenger and heavy-duty vehicles as well as for agricultural machinery, Gazpromneft Lu...