Volume 17 Issue 37

SSY Base Oil Shipping Report

U.S. markets are slowly coming back up after Hurricane Harvey, but there is still a lot of uncertainty. Europe has been very slow over the past week, but Asian markets continue to strengthen. U.S. Gulf There have been many cancellations of previously-fixed voyages to Asia, but now some of these are starting to revive. Prior to Harvey, there had been minimal amounts of September space. Immediately following Harvey, there was a lot of space due to the cancellations, but as both new and existing sh...

Motiva Declares Force Majeure

Motiva declared force majeure yesterday on base oils produced at its plant in Port Arthur, Texas, indicating that deliveries of all grades will be disrupted due to damage from Hurricane Harvey. In a letter to customers, a copy of which Lube Report obtained, the company advised that the 40,300 barrel per day plant and associated logistics systems were directly affected by the storm. The company implied that it plans to implement allocations but did not discuss how steep they will be or provide in...

Mendeleev Will Rerefine in 2018

Russias historic Mendeleev fuel refinery and lubricant plant resumed operations last month after a two-year production halt, and the embattled enterprise said it has bold plans for the future, including rerefining. Oleg Krasnonos, general director of Konstantinovsky, Yaroslavl region-based Mendeleev refinery, said that the refinery is getting ready to produce rerefined base oils and to restart its finished lubricant production line. One of the main features of the revived refinery will be produc...

Global Lube Demand Projected as Flat

Global lubricant demand is expected to increase at a compound annual rate of less than 1 percent, to 41 million metric tons by 2021, according to consultancy Kline & Co., with the continued shift to synthetics both suppressing volumetric growth and boosting revenues in some countries. Kline estimated global finished lubricant demand at 39.6 million tons in 2016, including process and marine oils. The Asia-Pacific region had the most demand, followed by North America and Europe. Motor oils f...

Amalie Oil, ESL Teknologies Partner

ESL Technologies was founded in 2009 to develop lubricant technologies. Repositioned as a sales and marketing business since 2015, ESL Teknologies signed an agreement announced Thursday to distribute Spectrol-branded lubricants in the United States for blender Amalie Oil. ESLT also received a capital infusion in 2017. We recapitalized internally, as we wanted to minimize the learning curve challenges of new participants, ESLT CEO John Cork Jaeger Jr. explained to Lube Report. We also had a liqui...

Briefly Noted

Eastman Chemical Co. completed expansion of its dimethylaminopropylamine (DMAPA) and alkyl alkanolamine capacity, including diethyaminoethanol (DEADE/DEEA), at its manufacturing facility in St. Gabriela, Louisiana. DMAPA is used primarily to make surfactants, and alkyl alkanolamines boost performance and extend fluid life for metalworking fluids, such as emulsion lubricants. Valvoline signed eight new development agreements with seven of its largest Valvoline Instant Oil Change franchisees for the addition of more than 160 stores by 2023, including expansion in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and California; and the purchase of 56 stores from Henley Bluewater LLC. Emerald Performance Materials is separating its polymer additives and mitriles groups, merging the businesses with its Emerald Kalama Chemical and CVC Thermoset Specialties groups, respectively. The Polymer Additives business will now be known as Antioxidants and Accelerators.