ILSAC – the auto industrys International Lubricant Specification and Approval Committee – is not letting any grass grow under its feet. It moved this month to put everyone on notice that it expects a new gasoline engine oil quality upgrade to be commercialized in 2009. The first inter-industry meeting to move the new GF-5 category forward is scheduled for Jan. 11 in Detroit, and a full contingent of representatives from vehicle manufacturers, oil marketers, testing laboratoriesand ch...

BP is shutting down its linear alphaolefin plant in Pasadena, Texas, again, and this time the company says the closure is permanent. The British oil major announced Dec. 16 that it will shutter the largest of its three LAO facilities by the end of 2005 because of continuing oversupply in the market. The LAO industry has faced a very difficult environment for the past few years, with overcapacity, slow demand growth, and high feedstock and energy costs, said George Tacquard, senior vice president...

Moving to solidify its position in the growing Asia-Pacific market, Cognis Deutschland GmbH announced last week that it has started building a factory in China that will make polyol ester synthetic lubricants for refrigeration systems. The new facility is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2006 and will be the second polyol ester project that the company has built inas manyyears, following this years opening of a facility in Brazil. Cognis, which is based in Dusseldorf, Germany, did not d...

Myers Container Corp. announced this month the opening of a 60,000-square-foot steel drum factory in City of Industry, Calif. The new plant replaces an existing 93,000 sq. ft. plant located outside Los Angeles in nearby Huntington Park. The company did not disclose the cost of the new plant beyond describing it as a multi-million dollar investment. Management has said it built the plant in part because California air pollution regulations stood to restrict operations at the old facility. The new...