In announcing its 2001 financial results yesterday, Milacron Inc. said its Metalworking Technologies division earned $19.9 million, down from $70.7 million in 2000. Sales for the division, which markets metalworking fluids as well as machining tools, dropped from $700 million to $610 million. The Cincinnati, Ohio, company attributed the slide to a slowdown in industrial activity but said it believes that the recession in North America has bottomed out. Milacron, which also supplies plastics proc...

Despite what it described as a lull in demand, Akzo Nobel announced that it will expand its phosphate ester lubricant additive plant in Gallipolis Ferry, W.Va. Akzo Nobel officials said capacity at the plant will increase by 50 percent, although they did not disclose the capacity or say how much the project will cost. They also linked the expansion to a decision by Great Lakes Chemical to close its phosphate ester plant in Nitro, W.Va., late last year. Akzo Nobel officials said existing capacity...

Independent lubricant blenders entered the ASEAN marketplace just two decades ago, and today they number over 100. Total annual demand for lubricants in this 10-country Southeast Asian market is estimated at 2.2 million metric tons (2.4 million U.S. short tons), and nearly a third of this was supplied by independent blenders and marketers in 2001. Independents are reshaping the ASEAN marketplace, Dr. Ho Leng Woon, chairman and managing director of AP Oil International Ltd., told the 8th Annual F...

Declaring its intention to survive steel industry consolidation, Quaker Chemical Corp. on Thursday announced that it is buying United Lubricants Corp., of Middletown, Ohio. A manufacturer and marketer of specialty lubricants and chemical management services, United caters primarily to the U.S. steel industry, which in recent years has fallen on well-publicized hard times. Quaker, which makes specialty chemical products mostly for the steel and automotive industries, has experienced a downturn in...