Bel-Ray Co. has contracted two companies to serve as exclusive distributors of its industrial lubricants in central and northern Europe. H. Costenoble GmbH, of Eschborn, Germany, will carry Bel-Rays products in Germany, Poland and Austria, while Fluortek AB, of Knivsta, Sweden, will distribute in that country. Both distributors will carry Bel-Rays No-Tox line of lubricants, designed for use in food and beverage processing, pharmaceutical, cosmetic and personal hygiene applications. Bel-Ray also ...

Lubricant consumption is shifting to higher quality products around the world, but overall volume growth is generally found only in developing countries. Given those trends, it is little surprise that a new study identifies parts of Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe as the lubricant markets with the most opportunity. Freedonia Group said Monday it has completed a study forecasting that global consumption of finished lubricants will grow 2.2 percent annually to 39.3 million metric tons in 20...

Hitching its cart to Asias steadily growing lubricant market, Degussa AG said it will build a 10 million plant in Singapore for its Specialty Acrylics Business Units RohMax Oil Additives business line. Officials said the facility is scheduled to open in 2007. In areas with developed economies – such as the United States and Western Europe – lubricant demand is barely growing, in some cases even shrinking. Demand in Asia, paced by burgeoning economies in China and India, is growing at...

LONDON – Despite an abundance of base oil manufacturing capacity, the past two years have felt awfully snug to base oil buyers worldwide. This is not due to one overriding cause – such as booming demand in China vacuuming up every loose barrel – but stems from an unfortunate series of bumps, glitches and sometimes painful refining choices, an ExxonMobil official said last week. Together, these factors have deflated the cushion that normally exists between global base oil demand...