Calling it a commercial breakthrough for its soybean-based lubricants, the University of Northern Iowas Ag-Based Industrial Lubricants Research Program announced Monday that Norfolk Southern Railway has decided to use its SoyTrak grease across its entire network of rails. ABIL officials said the choice by Norfolk Southern not only represents a quantum leap in sales of SoyTrak; it also opens the door for the grease to be accepted by other major railroads. Norfolk Southern plans to use SoyTrak on ...

Spring 2003 was not financially refreshing for Lubrizol Corp. or Valvoline, as both companies recorded year-to-year declines in earnings for the quarter ended June 30. Lubrizol announced yesterday that net income for its second quarter fell 15 percent from the same period of 2002, to $29.4 million, due to lower volumes and higher raw materials costs. Valvoline said the third quarter of its fiscal year (which begins Oct. 1) yielded operating income of $24 million, a drop of 4 percent from a year ...

British additive supplier Polartech Ltd. announced Monday that it has entered the Mexican market by signing a long-term distribution agreement with a subsidiary of Mexico City-based US Technologies. Casoil, the subsidiary, will distribute Polartech branded additives and additive packages produced at Polartechs facilities in Great Britain, as well as Petromix products that Polartech recently purchased from Crompton and which are produced in the United States. Additives from both locations are sol...