In an effort to help farmers by stimulating industrial use of vegetable oils, the governor of Iowa signed into law Monday a bill providing tax breaks to manufacturers that convert to soybean-based metalworking fluids. Proponents call the legislation a cost-effective way to kick start demand for soy-based products and said they hope to see the program imitated by other states. This could be the little push that businesses need to make the switch, said Lou Honary, president and chief executive off...

Dover Chemical Corp. has agreed to buy the chlorinated paraffins business of Pioneer Companies Inc., a deal that gives Dover a monopoly on chlorinated paraffin production in North America. A Houston-based supplier of chlorine and related products, Pioneer makes chlorinated paraffins at a plant in Cornwall, Ontario, Canada. In announcing their agreement Monday and Friday, respectively, Dover and Pioneer indicated that the Cornwall plant will be closed and that Dover plans to supply its new custom...

Noco Energy Corp. last month opened a 40,000-square-foot lubricants distribution center in Liverpool, N.Y. The facility, which replaces one of half that size in the same town, employs 19 people and has 44 storage tanks with total capacity of 220,000 gallons. Noco is a family-owned lubricants and fuels supplier headquartered in Tonawanda, N.Y., with four lubricants warehouses in the United States and two in Canada. The lubricants division carries ExxonMobil, Citgo, Monroe, Petro-Canada, Jax and H...

Price hikes continue to beset the market for chemicals used in lubricant additives. Supresta, Troy Corp. and Dow Chemical sang a familiar tune with recent announcements, citing higher costs for petroleum and other raw materials. Supresta (formerly part of Akzo Nobel) announced global hikes ranging from 5 cents to 30 cents per pound for phosphorus-based chemicals used as lubricants and other applications. The increases take effect July 1. The company, which is based in Ardsley, N.Y., attributed t...