Volume 16 Issue 19

SSY Base Oil Shipping Report

Rates out of the U.S. Gulf have been marked down despite an apparent deluge of demand, while Europe and Asia both shared a quiet spell amid widespread public holidays. U.S. Gulf Very little space to the Far East is left for May, even though yet more outsiders have been enlisted and put on berth. Ethanol is one of the main commodities again, but base oils have been ranked as one of the more active commodities with a couple of really large shipments to China from the U.S. Gulf. A third shipment is...

U.S. Corrosion Inhibitor Demand to Rise

Corrosion inhibitor demand in the United States is projected to rise 3.1 percent per year and reach $2.8 billion by 2020, a new study by Freedonia Group finds. Key industries and markets such as fuel and lubricant additives will drive demand for these chemical compounds. Demand for corrosion inhibitors used in additives for fuel and lubricants, which are included in the studys petroleum refining category, will have modest growth of 1 percent, rising from $280 million in 2015 to $315 million in 2...

Q8Oils Completes Antwerp Expansion

Q8Oils, the downstream arm of Kuwait Petroleum International, last week opened its expanded and upgraded 111,000-metric tons per year lube blending plant in Antwerp, Belgium. Completed with an investment of U.S. $100 million, the plant can scale to a production capacity of up to 221,000 t/y. The plants site along the river Scheldt – which doubles as Q8Oils headquarters – has 24 base oil storage tanks and 42 additive tanks. It is served by highway, rail and sea shipments and houses a ...

Hoardings Called a Top Promotion Channel in Africa

Banners and hoardings – the public placement of billboards or large print advertisements – are one of the leading channels in Africa for lubricant promotion, industry sources and a new study agree. Market research firm MarketsandMarkets published a study last month stating that hoardings and banners is the leading brand promotion channel in the African automotive lubricants market. This is due to the fact that it is the most convenient and effective medium to reach out to the end use...

Q1 Earnings Wrap-up

Calumet Specialty Products Partners posted a net loss, Clean Harbors made less money from rerefined and blended products, Heritage-Crystal Cleans oil business segment reported lower sales and Milacron posted higher operating earnings for its Industrial Fluids segment in the first quarter, compared to the year-earlier period. Calumet Indianapolis-based Calumet Specialty Products Partners reported a $67.7 million net loss for the quarter ending March 31, compared to $23.8 million in net income for...

Jiangsu Sinorgchem Buys Antioxidant Plants

As part of a three-way deal that also involved Singapore chemicals supplier DyStar, Jiangsu Sinorgchem Technology Co. agreed to acquire two Emerald Performance Materials LLC factories that make antioxidants for lubricants and other industries. DyStar Global Holdings, through its United States subsidiary DyStar LP, agreed to buy Emeralds Specialties, Polymer Additives and Nitriles businesses, which includes 5 U.S. manufacturing sites. DyStar in turn agreed to sell two of those plants – faci...

Briefly Noted

Maroon Group of Avon, Ohio, acquired Darien, Connecticut-based U.S. Chemicals, a national distributor of specialty chemicals, including products for the lubricants industry. Angus Chemical opened a customer application center in Paris to provide laboratories and a training facility for customers in Europe, Russia, Africa and the Middle East to collaborate with Angus personnel in work on products such as metalworking fluids. Al Pape was named president of Newark, New Jersey-based Shamrock Technologies, a global provider of specialty micronized powders, dispersions, emulsions and compounds, including PTFE, waxes and other additives. Essen, Germany-based Evonik Industries AG acquired the specialty and coating additives business of Air Products and Chemicals for $3.8 billion, in a deal expected to complete by the end of this year.