Fuchs Petrolub AG and Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP both posted healthy gains in first quarter earnings last week. Fuchs reported that broad sales growth helped raise its net profit 48 percent compared to the first quarter of 2005. Calumet netted $3.5 million after recording a small loss during the year-ago period. Fuchs said May 9 that it had a profit of 19.4 million (U.S. $24.9 million) for the three months ended March 31, compared to 13.1 million for the same period of 2005. Officia...

One U.K. auto insurer authorized nearly 163,000 claims in 2005 due to engine failures it attributed to motor oil issues, leaving motorists with an average repair bill of 1,229 pounds (U.S. $2,312) and prompting warnings to motorists of the risks of failing to check their engine oil regularly. Last week Comma Oil, based in Gravesend, Kent, England, and Warranty Direct, of Caversham, Reading, England, announced that damagingly low levels of oil and other oil issues accounted for 2.26 percent of th...

CALGARY, Alberta – The biggest enemy for hydraulic fluids and hydraulic systems is contamination, contended Thelma Marougy, principal engineer for lubricants and fluids at Eaton Corp.’s Hydraulics Operations in Southfield, Mich. Contaminants can cut life in half or more, and controlling contamination is key for successful operation in hydraulics. It’s a proven fact that 75 to 80 percent of all hydraulic machinery failures can be traced to contamination in hydraulic fluids, Maro...

Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP announced last week that it has broadened the scope of a previously announced expansion planned for its Shreveport, La., refinery. The company intends to increase base oil capacity there by approximately 6,000 barrels per day during the second half of next year. In February, the Indianapolis-based company said that it planned a series of improvements that would have increased the refinerys throughput and added approximately 2,000 b/d to its base oil capacit...

Chevron Products Co. and ConocoPhilllips announced price increases of up to 10 percent for finished lubricants the past few weeks. Their actions could signal the beginning of another round of markups in the U.S. market, offering cost relief to other blenders and continued pressure to installers and end users. Chevron and ConocoPhillips both attributed their moves to rising costs for base oils, additives and packaging – the same drivers behind a relative flurry of hikes over the past two ye...