LISBON – Lubricant demand in Portugal rebounded a bit in 2007, rising 4 percent from the year before to 84,000 metric tons, an official from Galp Energia said during an industry meeting here April 22. That number still represented a drop of 27 percent from the demand of 115,664 tons registered in 1998. Galps Paula Gomes added a caveat to the national demand statistics in her presentation to the European Lubricating Grease Institutes Annual General Meeting, stating that the General Director...

Lubricant suppliers Fuchs Petrolub and Quaker Chemical reported strong earnings for the quarter ending March 31, while Milacrons Industrial Fluids segment saw a decline in earnings but an increase in sales. FuchsFuchs Petrolub AG, the worlds largest independent lubricant manufacturer, yesterday reported net profits of 32.1 million (U.S. $49.9 million) for the quarter ending March 31, up 18.9 percent from 27 million in the year-earlier period. Sales revenues for the first quarter totaled 350.7 mi...

Lubrizols additives segment and NewMarkets Afton Chemical additives subsidiary each reported strong increases in operating income for the quarter ending March 31, compared to the year-earlier period. Lubrizols additives segment on Friday reported operating income of $112.8 million for the first quarter, up 12 percent from $100.9 million in 2007s first quarter. The company attributed the increase to higher volume, favorable currency and contributions from acquisitions completed in 2007. These pos...

MOSCOW – Russias lubricant additive industry has taken a pummeling from foreign competition the past several years, an industry insider said at a conference here last month. Domestic production has fallen in half since 2001 and in general is poorly suited to compete against western technology. The countrys independent additive suppliers are showing some signs of life, according to Boris Sobolev, chief specialist with Moscow-based additive distributor Transpromservis. But he suggested that ...

Sunoco continues evaluating offers for its Tulsa, Okla., refinery, and expects to make a decision by the early part of the third quarter, the companys chief financial officer said during a conference call with analysts last Thursday. The refinery includes a 9,500 barrel per day API Group I base oil plant. We’ve been talking to a number of people, Sunoco CFO Tom Hofmann said. We continue to evaluate the options that we have. Our expectations would be that a decision would be made in the lat...

Rerefiner Safety-Kleens holding company on Friday filed for an initial public offering of common stock to raise up to $300 million. Safety-Kleen operates a 3,500 barrel per day API Group I rerefinery in East Chicago, Ind., and a 1,500 b/d Group I rerefinery in Breslau, Ont., Canada. We intend to use these proceeds [from the offering] for general corporate purposes, including to fund working capital and capital expenditures, and possibly to make acquisitions, said Safety-Kleen HoldCo. Inc. in the...