Fuchs Petrolub AG recently reported that its profit leaped 31 percent in 2006, fueled by a hefty increase in sales revenue. The Mannheim, Germany, company is the worlds largest independent lube company. Fuchs said its net profit reached 97.2 million (U.S. $129.4 million), up from 74.2 million (U.S. $88.2 million) in 2005. Sales revenue rose for the year 11 percent to 1.3 billion (U.S. $1.7 billion). Ashland Inc.s Valvoline, the next-largest lubricant manufacturer without internal base oil supply...

BASF, Oxea Group, Dow Chemical Co. and Pilot Chemical Co. recently announced price increases forcertain chemical products. BASFs and Oxea Groups products are used in lubricants, while Dows are oxygenated solvents and hydraulic fluids. Pilot Chemicals products are used in metalworking fluids. On March 5, Dow Chemical Co. announced it would raise list and off-list prices by 3 to cents per pound on a number of its oxygenated solvent products in North America effective April 1 or as contracts allow....

Chevron Oronite Co. LLC has begun studying the expansion of detergent production capacity at its Jurong Island manufacturing site in Singapore. The detergents are used in lubricant additives. Andy Tugendhat, vice president, sales, Chevron Oronite, told Lube Report that the company, which is in the early phase of the study, believes it has adequate raw materials in the area to support an expansion. The detergents produced by an expansion would remain oriented towards lubricant additives only, Tug...

Petrobras, which is Brazils state-controlled oil company, along with business partners Braskem and the Ultra Group on Monday announced they will purchase Ipiranga Group, a Brazilian oil refiner and petrochemical, fuel and lubricants marketer, in a transaction valued at $4 billion. Ipiranga has more than 4,000 gasoline stations across Brazil — the nations second-largest chain after Petrobras — and also is a large petrochemical supplier. Its lubricants operations have a significant br...

The U.S. subsidiary of Rotterdam, Netherlands-based chemical distribution company Univar N.V.entered into an agreement to acquire all the shares of Chemcentral Corp. for $600 million in cash, including assumed debt, uniting two chemical distributors who work with products involved in lubricants, lubricant additives and metalworking fluids. On Monday, however, Univar announced that Chemcentral received a competing, non-binding $700 million acquisition proposal from Brenntag Holding GmbH, an indus...