Mack Trucks Inc. plans this week to issue an upgraded specification for heavy-duty engine oils with more stringent requirements for viscosity maintenance in the face of soot loading and shear stability. The change will likely require reformulation by oil marketers trying to accommodate one of the nations largest truck engine manufacturers. Beyond that, observers said Macks action is symptomatic of a desire by engine makers in general to improve APIs current industrywide CI-4 specification for di...

Safety-Kleen Corp., North Americas largest collector and rerefiner of used lubricating oil, has received court approval to reorganize and expects to emerge from bankruptcy this quarter. The companys used oil business has slimmed down but otherwise continues to operate much as it did before seeking bankruptcy protection in June2000, a spokesman said. Weve tried to focus on streamlining, spokesman John Kyte said, noting that the current payroll of 5,000 is now half of what it was three years ago. ...

Indianapolis-based Pinnacle Oil Inc. has reached an agreement to serve as upper Midwestern manufacturer for Lubricants USA, the exclusive marketer of Fina brand lubricants in the United States. Officials at Plano, Texas-based Lubricants USA said the company needed a new blender after its former partner, Bodie-Hoover Petroleum Corp., went out of business earlier this summer. Lubricants USA is privately held but maintains a close relationship with the Paris-based oil company Total, which recently ...

Packaging manufacturer Sonoco Products Co. announced Monday that it will cut about 340 salaried jobs, including 130 positions at its Hartsville, S.C., headquarters, and close 20 plants worldwide in order to save $60 million annually. Sonoco supplies grease cartridges and composite motor oil containers to the lubricants industry. Although the company has not disclosed which plants are slated for closing, Robert Cutler, sales manager for petroleum products, told Lube Report, We dont anticipate [th...