Oxea Group – a chemical company whose products are used in lubricants – recently launched its business operations under the ownership of investor Advent International. Last December Advent acquired selected businesses of Celanese Chemicals and chemical company European Oxo, a joint venture of Celanese and Degussa, for 480 million (U.S. $633.1 million). The acquisitions were consolidated into a new company following approval by antitrust authorities. The product range of the transferr...

Galaxy Associates Inc., whose Fremont Industrial division supplies metalworking and metal finishing products and services, recently acquired Innovative Chemical Solutions, whose product lines include industrial lubricants, forging lubricants and fire resistant hydraulic oil. Terms of the acquisition, which went into effect Feb. 27, were not disclosed. The Galaxy people and ICS people have really known each other for quite a long time, Galaxy President Bill Oeters told Lube Report. Most of the sa...

Total U.S. lubricant sales volumes in the fourth quarter fell 4.5 percent compared to the same period of 2005, according to the latest sales data from the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association. For the year 2006, lubricant sales volumes shrank 2.3 percent compared to2005. The organization March 7 released its Quarterly Lubricant Sales Survey showing that volumes for the fourth quarter fell across most major sectors of the market. Grease sales – the lone exception – rose 5.7...

LONDON – The lubricant industrys growing appetite for API Group III base oils is spurring an increasing urge for wider interchange rules that would allow them to be used with greater flexibility and lower testing costs. Butindustry experts warn that more testing needs to be done before Group III stocks can be interchanged as easily as Group I and II base oils. An audience at the ICIS World Base Oils Conference here last month heard that the process could take years.” Group III oils a...

Polartech has purchased the Georgia-Pacific Chemicals LLC facility at Bedford Park, Ill., Polartech Additives and Georgia-Pacific LLC announced Monday. The agreement, which includes Georgia-Pacifics Actrachem brand of specialty chemical additives, gives Manchester, U.K.-based Polartechits own metalworking additives manufacturing presence in the United States. The Bedford Park facility, which manufactures a range of additives for the metalworking business, will form part of Polartechs global manu...