Asian markets have at last begun to perform a little better with a bit more cargo around. Europe has not changed greatly, with some routes more active than others. The U.S. market is generally unchanged too. U.S. Gulf It turns out that the expected rush never occurred on the U.S. Gulf-to-Europe route. It probably would have done had styrene continued to flow, but the arb suddenly closed and that left relatively few cargoes around to be fixed, such as glycol, vinyl acetate monomer, ethylene dichl...

BOCA RATON, Fla. – It is taking longer than hoped for candidate engine oils to complete the testing and review process for General Motors Dexos1 Next Generation specification, so the automaker is delaying the expiration of current Dexos1 licenses. These had been due to die in August, but the companys Eric Johnson says licenses for the earlier version of Dexos1 will be stretched out a couple more months, until Dec. 31, 2016. Speaking yesterday to the annual meeting of the Independent Lubric...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The Middle East is being buffeted by economic, market and supply changes that promise to alter the way the its lubricants market does business, an industry insider said last week. Luberef Sales and Marketing Manager Gerard Heaton, speaking here at the ICIS Middle East Base Oils & Lubricants Conference, said that the regions economy is set to grow at a slower pace this year due to geopolitical disruptions in the area, the phasing out of fuel subsidies in so...

BOCA RATON, Fla. – Congress may finally pass reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act next week, American Chemistry Council lobbyist Rudy Underwood said here during a Tuesday morning session of the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Associations annual meeting. The bill has broad, bipartisan support, Underwood explained, and has already passed in the House of Representatives. It is stalled in the Senate because of a proposed amendment. We feel very confident once it gets to the floor, t...

ROVINJ, Croatia – Lubricant demand in the former Yugoslavia slumped by 29 percent over the past 10 years, battered by low industrial output and recession in key lubricant markets such as Croatia and Serbia, a consultant said during a conference here. Both countries have seen a significant drop in lube consumption in the past decade – Serbias slumped from about 47,000 metric tons in 2004 to about 30,000 tons in 2014, while Croatias dropped from about 42,000 tons to 23,000 tons over th...

S-Oil reported increased operating income for the third quarter ending Sept. 30, and WD-40 reported increased net income for the quarter ending Aug. 31, the fourth quarter of its fiscal year. S-Oil Seoul-based S-Oil reported that third-quarter operating income for its base oil business reached 95.6 billion won (U.S. $84.4 million), up 41.6 percent from 67.5 billion won in the year-ago quarter. Revenue declined 32.9 percent to 329.3 billion won, from 490.6 billion won a year earlier. In its earni...