Five months later than hoped, the West Coast’s newest lubricating grease plant is fully operational. Tomlin Scientific, which has formulated and marketed specialty greases since 1991, last week said it has completed bringing on stream its 1-million-pound-per-year grease plant in Santa Ana, Calif. Its tiny size means Tomlin will have the merest nibble of the 505 million pound U.S. lubricating grease market, but company officials say they’ll concentrate on low-volume/high-value offerin...

A year after forming an alliance to make synthetic esters in Brazil, Cargill Industrial Oils and Lubricants and Hatco Corp. have decided to take their partnership to China. The companies announced last week that they plan to build a plant in Shanghai to open next year. Officials declined to disclose the cost of the project or size of the plant, but said it will be similar to the one the companies opened earlier this year in Mairinque, Brazil. The Shanghai facility will crush seeds into plant oil...

Dana Corp. has selected two chemical managers to servicenearly 100manufacturing facilities in the United States and Canada. The automotive component manufacturer split its chemical management business between Haas TCM and Houghton Fluidcare on a geographic, business-unit and dollar-amount basis. Haas TCM, based in West Chester, Pa., reported late last month that it will provide chemical life-cycle management services to more than 50 Dana facilities, beginning with Dana sites in the Midwest in th...

German drum and intermediate bulk container manufacturer Mauser-Werke announced last week that it will merge with Italys Mamor, one of the worlds largest IBC manufacturers. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Mauser got off to a relatively late start in the IBC business, so the current merger will now allow the company to significantly increase its capacity in this swiftly expanding market, the company said. In Europe, plastic and metal drums are Mausers strongest performers, while in the...

ExxonMobil announced last week that it has agreed to participate in a public-private partnership that encourages consumers to recycle used motor oil. The company joins Castrol and Houston-based used oil collector Vertex Energyinsupporting Earth 911, a private, nonprofit organization that serves as a clearinghouse of information about recycling centers throughout the United States and Canada. The contributions of the oil companies include putting the Earth 911 logo on their motor oil labels. A lo...