The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. wants to take over the underfunded pension plan covering about 8,400 employees and retirees of Milacron Inc., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States and Canada in March. The Washington, D.C.-based PBGC on June 10 estimated that the Milacron retirement plan is 45 percent funded, with $260 million in assets to cover $573 million in benefit liabilities. The agency expects to be liable for about $285 million of the $313 million shortfall. The p...

Idemitsu Kosan on Thursday announced plans to invest $13.5 million next year to more than double its finished lubricants production capacity in Indonesia to meet an expected increase in demand for high-performance lubricants and oils for motorcycles. According to the announcement, the Idemitsu Lube Techno Indonesia subsidiary plans to expand its annual blending plant capacity to 65,000 kiloliters (about 57,200 metric tons or 400,000 barrels) in October 2010 from its current 25,000 kiloliters. T...

A short power outage Friday at Calumets Shreveport, La., refinery caused a flume of black smoke and a brief reduction in base oil production during the time needed bring the plants power back online, but did not impact customers. Calumet Shreveport spokeswoman Liz Swaine confirmed that a transformer at an AEP/Southwestern Electric Power Co. station blew at around 7 p.m. Friday, interrupting power to the plant. Crews from Calumet and the power company worked to get the plant back online. Swaine s...

BASF and F.A.R. have agreed to cooperate on the production, marketing and sale of the polyalcohol trimethylolpropane, which is used in production of synthetic lubricants. BASF will mothball its TMP plant in Ludwigshafen, Germany, which will affect eight BASF employees, who will assume other jobs at the site. The Ludwigshafen plant went on stream in 2000, said BASF spokesman Klaus-Peter Rieser. Under the agreement, F.A.R. (Fabbrica Adesivi Resine S.p.a.) will take over production of TMP for both ...

Parkland Income Fund agreed to acquire the fuel distribution business of Columbia Fuels Ltd., which also delivers lubricants to commercial customers, for Canadian $34.5 million (U.S. $30.5 million). The acquisition was expected to close yesterday, with an effective date of June 1. Headquartered in Victoria, British Columbia, Columbia Fuels distributes home heating oil, bulk petroleum and bio fuels, and operates bulk fuel terminals on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast Region of B.C. The C...

Because there is so little open tonnage in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, rates look firm on the majority of routes out. Inter-European trades fared reasonably well over the past week, especially southbound into the Mediterranean. Asia, however, remains flat and overtonnaged. U.S. Gulf of Mexico The lack of space is really beginning to be felt in the U.S. Gulf. U.S. Gulf-to-the-Caribbean, for example, is virtually full for the rest of June. The same is true for U.S. Gulf-to-east coast Mexico, and ind...