LyondellBasells planned switch of its naphthenic base oil and white oil marketing contracts to Calumet wont come without a courtroom battle, as Nynas Naphthenics and Schumann Steier each filed objections in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York Friday, to be heard Nov. 4. As part of its ongoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, LyondellBasell solicited bids to replace a contract to supply white mineral oil to Coral Gables, Fla.-based Schumann Steier (SSI) and another contract covering naphtheni...

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Adding grease to your product lines can be a profitable move for a lubricant marketer, but select your supplier carefully. Some grease manufacturers may send a salesman to call on your customers, an industry expert warned. Paul Converso, marketing vice president of Battenfeld Grease & Oil Corp. of N.Y., told the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association annual meeting here Oct. 13 that adding grease to your product line has minimal market entry costs. Greas...

Lubrizol has relocated its metalworking laboratory and testing operations from Spartanburg, S.C., to the technical center at its Wickliffe, Ohio headquarters. Our new laboratory facilities, coupled with our closer proximity to Lubrizols R&D and sales organizations, will allow us to provide faster, better and more efficient technical support and new, innovative products for our customers, said Frank Kroto, Lubrizols global technology manager, metalworking. The new facility will provide a fu...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Is the outlook for base oils and lubricants brighter? Speakers at the ICIS Middle Eastern Base Oils and Lubricants Conference said the global recession has ended and the worlds economy has begun a recovery that should begin to revive lube demand. But that does not mean a return to the prerecession status quo, according to one analyst. Purvin & Gertzs Blake Eskew said the industry will face a new order that includes higher prices, an acceleration of base o...

Engen Lubricants has finished a 5 million rand (U.S. $684,000) upgrade of its transformer oil blending facilities to help meet growing demand, thanks mainly to South African power utility Eskom Holdings continued expansion. It took us two years to grow from 340 kiloliters per annum to 6 million liters per annum and growing, Adnaan Emeran, lubricants marketing manager for Durban-based Engen, told Lube Report. Emeran noted that demand for transformer oils is growing all across South Africa, in li...

Net income for WD-40 rose 64 percent for the fourth quarter ending Aug. 31, to $7.6 million compared to the year-earlier period. For the full fiscal year, net income totaled $26.3 million, down 5 percent from the previous years total. Global sales of the lubricants WD-40 and 3-in-One reached $59.6 million in the fourth quarter, up 2.6 percent from the year-earlier period. For the full year, WD-40s global sales rose 4.6 percent to $225.1 million, compared to the prior year. San Diego-based WD-40...

Rather more activity has been generated over the past week, with Europe and the U.S. Gulf recording an increase in demand. Asian coastal markets improved too, but palm oil shipments into the Indian Ocean have waned. U.S. Gulf of Mexico It has become harder to locate vessels that are fully open in the U.S. Gulf in October. There are however a number of ships that can offer part-cargo space, whether into the Caribbean, the east coast of South America, Transatlantic or Asia. In this respect, rates...