Volume 7 Issue 24

API: CF-4 Diesel Oil Now Obsolete

WASHINGTON, D.C. – API CF-4, a heavy-duty diesel engine oil category that debuted 17 years ago and continues to hold a sliver of the market, was declared obsolete yesterday by the American Petroleum Institute’s Lubricants Committee at its semi-annual standards meeting here. Beginning immediately, no new licenses for the category will be accepted or issued. The demise of CF-4 was pretty much a given, since one key engine test for the category – the 600-hour Mack T-6 test that me...

Universal Lubricants Vows New Life for Used Oil

Lubricant manufacturer Universal Lubricants LLC announced yesterday that it will expand its environmental services division by adding a major lubricants recycling facility to its property in north Wichita, Kan. The company expects to begin construction on the five-acre site in August, with completion scheduled for late 2008 or early 2009. According to yesterdays announcement, the new facility will recycle millions of gallons of used oil each year. Universal said the facility will use a propriet...

Dow, Supresta Raise Prices

Dow Chemical Co. and Supresta recently announced price increases for certain chemical products. Dows products are hydraulic fluids, while Suprestas include lubricant additives and special application fluids. Each companys fluids find use in fire-sensitive applications. On Thursday, Dow announced it would raise all off-list prices of Ucon Hydrolube fire-resistant hydraulic fluids in North America effective July 1, or as contracts allow. The increase of 2 cents per pound or 18 cents per gallon wi...

RohMax Digs Singapore

RohMax Additives GmbH has broken ground in Jurong Island, Singapore, for its new 10 million (U.S. $13.52 million) manufacturing facility, which willproduce its Viscoplex brand of lubricant additives for use in automotive and industrial applications. Parent company Degussa GmbH first announced the plant in February 2005. The facility, which will operate as RohMax Asia Pacific Ptd. Ltd., is scheduled to open in 2008. The groundbreaking ceremony, attended by customers and local dignitaries, was hel...

Synlubes Boost Cognis Growth

Cognis functional productsbusiness unit – including its synthetic lubricants, mining technology, AgroSolutions and polymers, coatings and inks businesses – on May 30 reported sales of 222 million (U.S. $298.6 million), up 0.6 percent from 220 millionin the first quarter of 2006. On an organic basis – meaning sales excluding foreign currency effects, and the effects of acquisitions and divestitures – the functional products unit grew 5.4 percent, or by 12 million (U.S. $16...