ExxonMobil Lubricants and Specialties announced last week that it has landed a contract to supply turbine lubricants for the first phase of China s enormous Three Gorges Dam. ExxonMobil officials said the agreement entails large quantities of environmentally sensitive lubes, although they declined to discuss specific figures. They added, however, that the value of the deal goes beyond the volume of products that the dam will use that the company will benefit from its association with the govern...

Polartech Ltd. announced last week that it has bought Crompton Corp.s Petromix soluble oil base product line to become the leading global supplier of emulsifier packages. A metalworking additives maker headquartered in Manchester, England, Polartech was already supplying significant amounts of emulsifier packages across Europe and Asia. The Petromix business expands the companys operations in North America. Officials said the Petromix line is less specialized than Polartechs existing operations ...

Lubricant sales in the United States declined 3.3 percent in 2001, according to the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association s latest annual Report on Lubricating Oil and Wax Sales, released last week. The survey pegged the market at 2.5 billion gallons,practically the same size as in 1997. Few, if any in the industry will be surprised to hear that sales dropped last year from 2000, but the association s survey offers the most comprehensive gauge of just how bad of a year 2001 was. Associ...

Milacon Inc. said last week that it plans to discontinue its round tool and grinding wheel operations, the last pieces of its metalworking tools business. The company said it will now give more focus to its metalworking fluids business, as well as its ongoing supply of plastics processing machinery and supplies. Officials said they do not expect the exit from metalworking tools to affect the fluids business even though the former has been cited as a source of know-how in the development and use...