BASF plans to double its manufacturing capacity for certain alkylethonalamines (AEOA) by mid-2009 in response to increases in customer demand for the products, some of which are used in lubricants and metalworking fluids. BASF manufactures a range of AEOA specialties at its Ludwigshafen, Germany site. AOEA are part of the alkylalkanolamine category that BASF makes at its sites in Ludwigshafen, and in Geismar, La., in the United States, with a total annual capacity of 70,000 metric tons. AOEA &...

Colonial Specialty Chemicals has been named U.S. distributor of Lonzas metalworking fluid product line, while Multisol Group, in cooperation with French tribology research firm InS, has been named European distributor of lubricant additives based on nanotechnology from ApNano Materials. Based in Tabernacle, N.J., Colonial Specialty now markets corrosion inhibitor CarboShield 1000, various biocides including Carboquat MW50, and a line of oleochemicals used for lubrication, emulsification and defo...

MeadWestvaco Corp. Specialty Chemicals and Chemserve (Chemicals Services Ltd.) are equal partners in the joint venture Resitec Industria Quimica Ltda., a Brazilian company which serves the South American pine chemicals market. MWV Specialty Chemicals and Resitec each make products used in industrial lubricants and metalworking fluids. Terms of the recently signed definitive agreement were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of this year. The companies sa...

Quaker Chemical Corp. plans to invest $19.8 million to triple production capacity at its Middletown, Ohio, plant and centralize production of its rolling oils, rust preventives, cleaners and hydraulic fluids there. Construction is scheduled to start within a couple of months, Mark Featherstone, vice president and chief financial officer, old Lube Report; financing is in place. When the expansion is complete late next year, Quaker will transfer all production except metalworking fluids from its o...

Global synthetic and semi-synthetic finished lubricant demand is forecast to grow by 7 percent and 4 percent, respectively, each year until 2017, according to a new study released by Kline and Co. The Little Falls, N.J.-based consulting firm used 2007 as its base year. The report analyzes three lubricant markets including consumer automotive oil, commercial automotive oil, and industrial oil trends globally, with a focus on large lubricant-consuming regions including North America, South America...