Fuel and lubricants distributor United Fuel & Energy Corp. announced its 2006 financial results, reporting that revenue for the year was $336 million, up from $284 million in 2005. Net income for the year rose to $2 million, from less than $900,000 the previous year. United Fuel, based in Midland, Texas, attributed its higher annual revenue to a 16 percent increase in selling prices for fuel and lubricants and a 2 percent increase in sales volumes. For the fourth quarter of 2006, the compa...

Ashland Inc., parent company of lubricant marketer Valvoline, said Monday that about 100 employees have chosen to accept voluntary severance offers the company extended last year, resulting in a $15 million after-tax charge in its second fiscal quarter. The company had offered the voluntary severance packages to about 1,100 employees in its resources group last year, Ashland spokesman James Vitak told Lube Report, following the sale of its Ashland Paving and Construction highway construction div...

SKF Canada has acquired Automatic Lubrication Systems of Burlington, Ontario, for an undisclosed amount. ALS, with 17 employees, services centralized lubrication systems made by Vogel, which was acquired by SKF in July 2004. ALSs market includes Canadian mobile transportation equipment and industrial machinery customers. A family run organization, it was founded in 1976 by Nick Nyenhuis, who is continuing with the company. The acquisitiontook effect March 2. The combination of the ALS team with ...

ExxonMobil Chemical said Thursday it has completed several debottlenecking projects at its synthetics plant in Beaumont, Texas, that increase capacity to produce high viscosity SpectraSyn 40 centiStoke and100 cSt polyalphaolefins by 15 percent. LubesnGreases magazine estimated the plants capacity to be 60,000 metric tons per year before the upgrades.A 15 percent increase would bring estimated capacity to 69,000 metric tons per year. ExxonMobil Chemical does not disclose PAO capacities,butwith co...

Royal Manufacturing Co. LP and its affiliate Wright Oil Co. have almost finished moving into a newly constructed facility in the San Antonio area designed to help meet growing demand for Royals industrial and heavy-duty lubricants. The new facility is slightly more than 100,000 square feet. The plant was necessary to handle the increase in sales for our branded products, as well as custom blending and packaging for existing customers, Royal Manufacturing said in a statement. Our market areas are...

Indias Dorf Ketal, an additives and process chemicals supplier, has acquired ExxonMobil Chemicals component additives business, hoping to capitalize on the long-term potential for growth in the specialty chemicals market. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Effective today, ExxonMobil Chemical will begin to transfer its sales, marketing and product representation, manufacturing, inventory ownership and replenishment, customer service and order fulfillment and technical support for the c...