St. Louis-based Harbour Group said yesterday that it has purchased Alemite LLC, a manufacturer of lubrication and fluid handling equipment and systems. In addition to an existing lubrication equipment business, Harbour has affiliates that supply lighting equipment, entertainment systems and heat exchangers. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Alemite, which is headquartered in Fort Mill, S.C., makes and markets pumps, reels, grease fittings, manual and powered grease guns, automatic lub...

Dow Chemical Co. announced last week the lifting of a force majeure declaration imposedon ethyleneamines more than fourmonths ago in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The chemicals are used as intermediates in the manufacture of lubricant additives. Dow makes its ethyleneamines at a plant in Hahnville, La., which is located a few miles up the Mississippi River from New Orleans. Like many industrial operations in the area, the plant was forced to shut down after Katrina crashed across the U.S. Gulf ...

A Jan. 13 fire has forced Nynas to temporarily scale back production at its naphthenic base oil plant in Nynashamn, Sweden, the company said yesterday. An official said the company hopes to complete repairs and resume normal operations in approximately three weeks. If it keeps to that schedule, deliveries to customers should not be affected, the official said. The plant continues to run at or above two thirds of capacity, and the company is tapping emergency reserves to make up the shortfall. Th...

The owner of Pitt Penn Oil Co. agreed last week to sell the Pennsylvania compounder blender to Industrial Enterprises of America Inc., a year-old holding company with operations in automotive specialty products and refrigerant gases. The seller is SpinWell Holding Co., a private investment group in Cleveland that bought Pitt Penn out of bankruptcy three years ago. The investment group bought [Pitt Penn] with the intent of making it profitable, and that is what happened, Pitt Penn President Damon...

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Time is running out to join in the auto industrys initiative to fund the development of a new fuel economy test for engine oils via a pay-to-play option. So far, the effort has received a full commitment of $300,000 from each of the four major chemical additive companies, but support from the engine oil industry has been less widespread. The new Sequence VID (six-D) engine test is expected to be a cornerstone of the next gasoline-fueled engine oil category, called GF-...

Petro-Canada said this week that the Group II train of its Mississauga, Ontario, base oil plant is not expected to resume production until early March. That would represent a two-month shutdown for that portion of the facility, which makes approximately 6,250 barrels per day. A Jan. 7 fire that closed the plants White Oils Unit apparently has forced Petro-Canada to impose allocations on some products, and observers say it has already affected the North American base oil market. I think [other Gr...

The new API CJ-4 diesel engine oil specification is barreling towards approval tomorrow by ASTMs Heavy Duty Engine Oil Classification Panel at a special meeting the group has scheduled in Chicago. Virtually every technical hurdle has been cleared and – thanks to a decision by Caterpillar Inc. to retard the timing of its own new proprietary specification – panel members say that the American Petroleum Institute should indeed be able to begin licensing its new category in mid to late O...