Registration has opened for the first international symposium on metalworking fluid issues in more than a decade, The Industrial Metalworking Environment: 3rdSymposium on Assessment and Control of Metal Removal Fluids, Oct. 5-8 in Dearborn, Mich. This conference will present the latest information on health, safety and the environment for metal removal fluids, Symposium Chairman John M. Burke, director of engineering services at Houghton International, told Lube Report. Some presentations will ...

Croda International last week agreed to sell its Chicago-based oleochemicals business to H.I.G. Capital for 46.7 million (U.S. $91 million). The Chicago oleochemicals business supplies fatty acids and glycerine used in lubricant formulations as well as in personal care and other products. In 2007 the business made an operating profit of 4.6 million on sales of 87.9 million. Crodas lubricants business is not included in the sale. Croda is selling the Chicago oleochemicals plant, which is run as ...

Chemtura announced an increase in prices for a range of petroleum additive products and a boost in production of its Synton brand of PAO products at its Elmira, Ontario,facility, while Kraton Polymers said it would raise prices for SBS-based polymers and compounds in North and South America. Middlebury, Conn.-based Chemtura announced last week that effective June 1, it will increase prices by 10 percent on all sulfonates and finished greases, 5 percent on its Synton polyalphaolefin (PAO) produc...

Agricultural processing giant Archer Daniels Midland has entered the lubricants business, gaining a minority share position with its investment in Houston-based BioBlend Renewable Resources. Janet Mann, general manager for industrial chemicals at ADM in Decatur, Ill., declined to identify the size of ADMs investment or its percentage of ownership, saying only that we are a major investor in BioBlend. Mann, who headed Chemturas petroleum additives business before joining ADM, now leads a new ADM...

SHREVEPORT, La. – Calumet Specialty Products’ expansion at its refinery here started up May 1, with feedstock beginning to go in early last week, said Kevin Farley, director of business planning. The expansion will increase the plants base oil capacity from 3,500 barrels per day of API Group I to 4,800 b/d, and Group II capacity from 3,500 b/d to 7,000 b/d. In addition to moving the Shreveport refinery from mainly Group I to Group II quality base oils, the expansion also provides enh...

Effective June 1, ExxonMobil will stop supplying base oil from its Bayonne, N.J. terminal, industry sources confirmed to Lube Report. The company initially informed customers last November about plans to close the terminal, sources said. Basically, ExxonMobil said in the letter, you needed to get hold of your rep and to figure out what youre going to do for the future because sometime in the spring they would close that facility, a base oil buyer told Lube Report. The source said they were inf...