Bel-Ray Co. has formed a new partnership in Russia with Texoil, which will distribute Bel-Rays general industrial and No-Toxlubricants across the country. Texoil currently distributes lubricants, and supplies earthmoving and mining equipment for Reschke and ESCO. Based in St. Petersburg, Texoil has six sub-distributors across Russia and said it plans to add another 10 sub-distributors over the next few years. The company has 11 sales engineers working across northwest Russia. Bel-Ray gives us an...

E-Ionhas created a wholly-owned Center for Innovation and Commercial Development, led by Boris Zhmud, to expand the privately-held companys friction-modification research and development program. Zhmud, who joined the lubricity and oiliness additives supplier in 2007 as R&D manager, said the center came about after about a half year of discussions, receiving approval a few weeks ago. The creation of our center reflects the management decision to separate strategic R&D from QA and day-t...

Texas Petrochemicals raised prices for its polyisobutylenes used in lubricant and fuel additives, Dow hiked prices for its oxygenated solvents, and Kraton Polymers announced price increases for polymers used in lubricants. Houston-based Texas Petrochemicals last week announced that effective Sept. 1, it would raise polyisobutylene prices by up to 12 percent, depending on grade, and adjust off-list pricing as contracts allow. The company cited a recent rapid increase in isobutene feedstock and na...

Lubricant supplier Prista Oil is preparing to open a base oil terminal at the port of Varna, Bulgaria. The 24,000-cubic-meter facility is the largest base oil depot on the Black Sea and bolsters Pristas position as a major base oil broker in the region. The company, which is headquartered in Sofia, Bulgaria, already operates terminals in Odessa, Ukraine, and Yaramga, Turkey. With terminal facilities in Turkey, Bulgaria and Ukraine, Prista becomes one of the most powerful players in the logistics...

Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP last week reported net income for the quarter ending June 30 of $41.8 million, up 11.8 percent from $37.4 million in the year-earlier period. Sales revenue for the quarter was up 59.2 percent to $671.2 million, compared to $421.7 million in the year-earlier period. Indianapolis-based Calumet said historically high crude oil prices continued to pose significant challenges during the second quarter. We have implemented multiple rounds of specialty product pri...

Polartech Group has completed a $20 million, 25,000 square meter metalworking fluids and additives manufacturing facility in Suzhou Industrial Park, in Suzhou, China. The company said its initial capacity will be 10,000 metric tons of additives per year, expandable to 30,000 tons. The facility will be manufacturing finished metalworking fluids, metalworking fluid packages, and additives – including corrosion inhibitors, emulsifiers and lubricity/extreme pressure additives, all designed spe...

A fire Monday morning caused extensive damage to a 15,000 square foot warehouse in Tupelo, Miss., used by distributor Dutch Oil/Victory Marketing to store a variety of lubricant products. Jimmy Avery, chief of operations for the Tupelo Fire Department, said the fire started at about 9:30 a.m., and took firefighters from six different stations about three hours to get under control. One Victory employee suffered minor burns from the fire, according to Avery. They had 55-gallon drums of mineral sp...

Lubricants supplier Fuchs Petrolub Group AG reported strong earnings for the first half of 2008, and outlined 70 million (U.S. $104.3 million) in investments this year. The investments will expand research and development, strengthen its specialty business, and create additional capacities in Brazil, China and India. Fuchs Petrolub last week reported net profits of 65.1 million (U.S. $99.7 million) for the first six months of 2008, up 11.9 percent from 58.2 million during the first half of 2007....