Global sales of the lubricants WD-40 and 3-in-One rose 7.4 percent for the fourth quarter ending Aug. 31, to $58.1 million compared to the year-earlier period. For the full year, WD-40 said global sales increased 9.1 percent, to $235.9 million, compared to the year 2007 total. WD-40 on Oct. 15 reported net sales for the quarter and year of $76.9 million and $317.1 million, down 2.6 percent for the quarter compared to the year-earlier period and up 3 percent compared to the prior year. Net income...

Dorf Ketal Chemicals LLC has appointed Palmer Holland Inc. as a distributor for its lubricant additives and plastic additives lines. The additives are now made in India, but a Dorf Ketal official saidthe companywould like to also open a manufacturing plant in the United States. Under the arrangement announced Thursday, North Olmsted, Ohio-based Palmer Holland is responsible for sales of the PX lubricant additives line for industrial and metalworking lubricant formulators, along with sales of Dor...

Recent spikes in oil prices and increased environmental regulations have injected renewed interest into alternative base stocks such as synthetics, rerefined oil and bio-based oils, said Freedonia Group Inc. analyst Diane Wilkoff, noting a key finding in Lubricants, a new U.S. market study from the Cleveland-based market research firm. Synthetics are expected to continue to comprise the largest portion of these sales, but bio-based oils are expected to grow faster, due in part to governmental in...

DEARBORN, Mich. – How to protect worker health while promoting industrial progress? That isa critical challenge facingstakeholders in the metal removal fluid environment, and one answer is to adopt the precautionary principle: when there is evidence harm may occur, take precautions now. Dont wait for definitive scientific proof of cause and effect. Metalworking fluids resemble chemical systems, not single chemicals, and this complicates their hazard status, keynote speaker John Howard, for...

Safety-Kleen Inc. on Monday announced a $15 million expansion of its East Chicago, Ind., rerefinery, which is expected to increase its API Group I base oil capacity by 10 million gallons annually, about 650 barrels per day. The plant had about 3,500 b/d of Group I capacity before the expansion, according to the LubesnGreases 2008 Guide to Global Base Oil Refining. John Kyte, Safety-Kleens director of corporate communications, said the expansion, which he called fundamentally complete, involved s...

Californias South Coast Air Quality Management District plans to regulate the volatile organic compound content of metalworking fluids, restricting VOC to 25 grams per liter and requiring every metalworking fluid andrust inhibitor used or sold in the district to be labeled with VOC content and date of manufacture. Everyone, anywhere, selling to Los Angeles must comply by July 1, 2009, the AQMDs Michael Morris told the Metal Removal Fluid Symposium in Dearborn, Mich., earlier this month. Sale is ...

The continued shutdown of the ExxonMobil Chemical polyalphaolefin (PAO) plant in Beaumont, Texas, has forced ExxonMobil Lubricants and Specialties to institute a sales allocation on a variety of Mobil 1 synthetic lubricants, effective Oct. 1. On Sept. 15, ExxonMobil Lubricants and Specialties was notified by our primary polyalphaolefin supplier, ExxonMobil Chemical, that Hurricane Ike had caused significant disruption to production capabilities at their Beaumont, Texas, plant, and to the ability...