Volume 5 Issue 3

Crompton Nears Price-fixing Settlement

Crompton Corp. announced last week that it expects to enter a $97.1 million agreement to settle class action lawsuits filed by three groups of customers seeking redress for Cromptons participation in a conspiracy to fix prices for rubber chemicals. The company previously agreed to pay fines totaling $57.4 millionas part of a guilty pleas with United States and Canadian prosecutors. The case apparently does not involve rubber process oils or products used in the lubricants industry. Crompton offi...

Motor Oils On Your Mind? SAE Plans Forum

If you are itching to unload opinions about unlicensed motor oils, if you have ideas about the fuel economy requirements of the next passenger car motor oil upgrade, then SAE International is planning a meeting for you. In an effort to address what they see as a lack of public discourse on industry issues, members of SAEs Fuels and Lubricants Council are organizing a pair of forums to coincide with SAEs World Congress in Detroit in April. Officials say the forums are meant to encourage a sharing...

Lubrizol Closing British Plant

Lubrizol Corp. announced Monday that it will close its manufacturing plant in Bromborough, England, within two years in a cost-trimming measure. The plant employs 69 people, some of whom will be offered jobs elsewhere. The Bromborough plant makes engine oil additives, as well as fuel additives and specialty monomers. Lubrizol, which is based in Wickliffe, Ohio, stated those operations will be transferred to facilities in France and Texas with higher capacity. Management said the change will save...

Detroit Diesel Launches Oil Spec

So much for precluding the development of diesel engine oil standards by individual engine manufacturers. Detroit Diesel Corp. announced a specification for oils to be used in its 2002 and later engines last week, just four months after the launch of API CI-4 Plus, an upgrade that was supposed to put an end to spec proliferation. The new specification is Power Guard 93K214, and Detroit Diesel recommends that oils certified as meeting it be used in trucks model year 2002 and later that are equipp...