Royal Purple Ltd. was black and blue after BP Lubricants USA took it to task over advertising claims for its synthetic motor oil, finding a receptive audience in the advertising industrys self-regulatory forum. The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus recommended Porter, Texas-based Royal Purple modify or discontinue numerous advertising claims for its synthetic motor oil, following a challenge by Wayne, N.J.-based BP Lubricants. The NAD examined comparative p...

Rafinerija ulja Modrica thisweek began producing hydrocracked base stocks at its reconstructed plant in Modrica, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Modrica refinery stopped producing base stocks in 1992 after the start of the Bosnian War. An official told Lube Report yesterday that the plant has capacity to make 52,000 metric tons per year of API Group III base oils. Output includes five grades of base oils ranging from 3 centiStoke to 8 centiStoke, insulating transformer oils and paraffin wax. The p...

Nynas Naphthenics is building a blending and storage hub in Houston with 25 tanks and 55,000 cubic meters of storage capacity to help meet growing demands for its base oils, tire oils and transformer oils. Completion is expected by the end of 2009. In its latest Naphthenics magazine, Stockholm, Sweden-based Nynas said that in addition to receiving products from production units in the U.S., the Houston hub will also accept deliveries from production units in Nynashamn in Sweden and Curacao in t...

Used oil recycler Baufeld shut down its Duisburg, Germany, rerefinery last month in conjunction with an expansion by parent company Puralube. The combination of those developments raised the quality of base stocks produced by the combined companies, although the overall capacity actually decreased. As previously reported inLube Report, Puralube opened a second rerefinery at its Troeglitz, Germany, site in January. That plant has capacity to make 70,000 metric tons per year of rerefined Group II...

Atlantic Pacific Automotive LP has acquired Keltner Enterprises, which distributes motor oil, chemicals and aftermarket parts throughout the United States. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Springfield, Mo.-based Keltner was a portfolio company of Gen Cap America, a Nashville, Tenn.-based private investment form. Founded in 1952, Germantown, Tenn.-based Atlantic Pacific is a global supplier of automotive chemicals, parts and accessories to automotive parts jobbers and redistributors....

Cognis functional products business unit – including its synthetic lubricants business – reported sales of 948 million (U.S. $1.3 billion) for the full year 2008, a 4.4 percent increase from 908 million in 2007. Key drivers of this growth were strong worldwide demand for environmentally friendly agricultural solutions and for synthetic lubricants used in industrial applications and automotive applications, the company noted in its annual financial information disclosure report for 2...

The past couple of weeks have seen a wave of chemical cargoes fixed to Asia, with material from the U.S. Gulf, Europe and Middle East. The United States in particular has been drained of all scheduled carriers, indeed of most kinds of chemical tanker, large or small, with the result that freight rates have soared. Routes from Europe to Asia have been busy too, and many smaller ships that would not normally trade on this route have been drafted to cover some of the demand. Other key trade lanes ...