In addition to the expansions in Asia, Croda recently announced a 120 million capital investment in North America that will lead to 100 percent sustainable nonionic surfactants from bioethanol. That investment represents a tidal shift, especially for consumer goods manufacturers who are striving for sustainability and performance, said Group Chief Executive, Steve Foots.

Moscow Police bust Huge Fake Oil Ring

Russian police on December 18 raided a massive counterfeit motor oil business in Moscow that they said sold fake products in containers designed to look like popular motor oil brands. The bust follows similar raids of smaller operations in Novosibirsk and Irkutsk. In this case, the organizers set up engine oil production on an industrial scale and developed it into a multibillion-ruble business.

Our preliminary estimates show an illegal turnover of around 12 billion rubles annually [U.S. $170 million], the Russian interior ministrys department for economic crimes and corruption said in a news release. The finished production has been packaged under a slate of popular imported brands and sold all around the country. Examples of the counterfeit brands include Shells Helix and Rimula, ExxonMobils Super, and Totals Quartz and Elf, as well as SK Lubricants Zic.

In addition, branded original equipment manufacturer motor oil canisters bearing Ford, Toyota and Mazda logos were featured in a video the Interior Ministry posted on its website. The video shows different engine oil canisters which resemble legitimate brand containers in size, stamped with high-quality print labels, neatly packaged in labeled cardboard boxes and put on pallets ready for shipping.

During the raid, we discovered 70 tons of fake motor oils packaged in more than 80,000 canisters and ready for sale. Also, we found a huge amount of plastic packages and labels of various brands, as well as bookkeeping documentation and stamps of more than 30 firms, the police said.

All these fake oils dont comply with the technical specifications, and have been produced and sold on an industrial scale in rented warehouses in the territory of Moscow and Solnechnogorsky district of the Moscow oblast, an Interior Ministry spokesman said. He added that the production and packaging took place on three automatic filling machines and that all processes had been executed by a workforce of around 100 immigrants from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, many of whom have been detained for working illegally.

Gloomy Future for Boric Acid

The global market for boric acid in metalworking fluids is expected to decline substantially in the next 3 to 5 years. The consumption of boric acid in EMEA is shrinking as a percentage of tons of metalworking products produced, Johan Hooijman, Quaker Chemical Corp.s global R&D director for metalworking, told delegates at the ICIS & ELGI Industrial Lubricants Conference in Amsterdam in November. But boric acid will likely remain an active ingredient in products supplied to a large part of the world where legislation is less developed.

Boric acid has long been used in metalworking fluids as a corrosion inhibitor and antistaining additive, Hooijman explained. Also, boric acid creates an environment unfavorable for microorganism growth. However, since December 2010, boric acid has been classified as toxic to reproduction.

Legislation requires products containing 5.5 percent or more of free boric acid to be labeled as toxic to reproduction, category 1B, and carry the exploding chest icon. Boric acid also must be mentioned in Safety Data Sheets if present in concentrations greater than 0.1percent.

Formulations based on boric acid offer good price performance, particularly for ferrous machining, Hooijman stated. Therefore, the cost impact of boric acid free technology was initially very high. Fortunately, the raw material cost of the latest developments is more manageable.

Hooijman provided a perspective on the future of boric acid in the next 3 to 5 years. He said that EMEA is ahead of most other regions. European-based, global automotive and bearing companies are implementing the same rules for boric acid free technology in all their plants around the world. Other global companies tend to do the same.

In North and South America, he added, larger end-users are implementing boric acid free technology. Medium and small companies lack information and knowledge and, therefore, are a few years behind the big users. But states like California are ahead in implementing alterative technology.

In Asia, the more advanced countries are implementing boron-free technology and have legislation in place. Less advanced countries will continue to use boric acid technology until legislation is put in place.

Shell Exports from Russia

Royal Dutch Shells Russian subsidiary has started to export lubricants from its blending plant in Torzhok. So far, we produced lubes only for the Russian market, but recently we started to ship products to Belarus, said William Kozik, general director of Shell Neft. In 2016, we plan to expand our sales to Kazakhstan.

The 180,000 ton per year blending plant in Torzhok is one of Shells largest in the region. Located 250 kilometers west of Moscow, it started operations in 2012 and now produces around 1,000 types of automotive and industrial lubricants.

The company is not yet ready to ship products to Europe or any other destination outside the customs union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Poland is one of the most promising markets, but we cannot sell products [from Torzhok] there because the high export duties we have to pay make such business unprofitable, Kozik said.

He estimated that Russias economic problems caused the countrys lubricant market to shrink by around 10 percent in 2015, but added that Shells share of Russias finished lubricant market is growing. Russian base oil and lubricant demand fell from 1.7 million metric tons in 2013 to around 1.5 million tons in 2014, according to InfoTek, a Moscow-based consultancy.

Nynas Completes Harburg Take Over

Nynas announced that it has completed the takeover of the former Shell refinery in Hamburg, Germany. The addition of Harburg to the Nynas supply network is an important step forward in Nynas growth strategy, said Gert Wendroth, president and CEO of Nynas AB.

The Harburg refinery will have a production capacity of specialty oils up to 330,000 tons. In addition, it will offer penetration bitumen for Nynas customers in Europe. A new bitumen truck-loading facility planned to be operational by mid-2016 will be the final step in improving the refinery infrastructure. The distillation unit in the northern part of the refinery is being converted and upgraded to restart in spring 2016.

The European Commission approved the takeover of the facilities in September 2013, and some 90 employees transferred to Nynas in January 2014. With the completion of the acquisition, another 157 employees transfer from Shell to Nynas.

Teknor Apex Appoints Vanderbilt

Teknor Apex Co. has appointed Vanderbilt Chemicals LLC as the exclusive global distributor of its TruVis line of ester products. The product range includes adipate, trimellitate and polyol esters for use as base stocks and additives for the automotive, industrial, metalworking fluid and grease markets.

Teknor Apex has singled out the lubricant market for its high growth potential and will benefit from Vanderbilts global reach and extensive experience in the automotive, industrial and grease markets, said Randall Butler, business director for the chemicals division of Teknor Apex. We will work in close partnership with Vanderbilt, whose extensive applications laboratory will provide valuable technical support for our products.

Belarus Wax Plant to Modernize

Belarus business Mineral Wax Plant will upgrade its wax production and triple its finished lubricant capacity in 2016, the company reported. Based in Pukhovichi, Minsk region, Mineral Wax Plant is the only such enterprise in the country.

We are in a phase of installation of new equipment for production of lubricants, a plant spokesperson said in an interview. Scheduled to be open in early 2016, the upgraded blending unit will be capable of producing up to 31,000 tons of lubricants annually, or three times more than its current capacity.

The company is also getting ready to modernize its wax production with installation of a new wax hydrotreating unit that could improve product quality. The plants annual wax production capacity is 18,000 tons, and the upgrade is expected to add a couple of thousand more tons per year.

At the moment, we produce technical or unpurified waxes that contain toxic materials such as sulfur and asphalts. After the upgrade, the final product will be purified, high quality wax that has a higher price on the market, said Valeri Konstantinau, the plants head engineer.

The company produces a wide range of mineral waxes, such as slack waxes, residue wax (foots oil), candle waxes and wax surface modifiers. In addition, it produces conservation and wire oils, greases, emulsifiers and metalworking fluids, as well as special oils such as refrigerating and annealing fluids, and oils for hydromechanical and hydrostatic transmissions.

Chemtura Grows in Italy

Chemtura Corp. announced that it will expand its Latina, Italy, site to increase capacity for primary antioxidants (ADPAs) as one of the companys efforts to meet future market demands in the automotive additive industry worldwide. The expansion features the building of a new plant that will double the ADPA capacity of the Latina facility. It is expected that this new plant will begin producing Naugalube antioxidants before the end of 2016.

As the transportation sector gears up for the latest requirements in greater fuel efficiency, the market is indicating a step increase in antioxidant demand in 2017 and 2018, said Kerim Wewer, head of asset management EMEA. Our efforts are part of a long-range capacity expansion program that started in 2014 to ensure a continuous supply of high-quality antioxidants to the industry.

Antioxidant demand is being driven by increased fuel efficiency standards, particularly corporate average fuel economy standards that are moving the industry toward downsized turbocharged engines with higher power densities. This, in turn, results in higher engine operating temperatures and accelerated oxidation in engine oil. According to projected growth rates, the demand for antioxidants is expected to increase annually by about 5 percent through 2018.

Oronite Advances China Plans

Chevron Oronite announced that it has completed the registration of a Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise (WFOE) based in Ningbo, China. In addition, the company has increased its technical support and product development capabilities in China through a growing technology center of expertise located in Shanghai.

The establishment of Chevron (China) Chemical Co. Ltd. as a WFOE is a critical milestone as Oronite advances its plans to establish a manufacturing facility in Ningbo. The project timeline calls for blending and shipping activities to begin in 2020. All Oronite product manufacturing and sales activities in China will eventually be conducted under the WFOE, the company said in a news release.

In addition, Oronite is expanding its automotive field test and bench testing capabilities in China, in both the heavy-duty and passenger car segments. The company also leverages its technology center in Omaezaki, Japan, to offer formulation expertise and testing capabilities from bench tests to engine dynamometer testing.

Houghton Partners with SMS

Houghton International and SMS Group announced an exclusive partnership to develop and distribute rolling oils for metal production. According to the joint news release, SMS is one of the worlds largest manufacturers of ferrous and nonferrous plant and mill equipment for the production of flat, long, tubular and wire products. SMS will work exclusively with Houghton to develop and apply advanced metal rolling technologies to meet the future demands of global metal producers.

Through this partnership, Houghton and SMS will leverage their research and development resources to develop advanced metal rolling oils, and Houghton will become the exclusive distributor of oils for SMS mill equipment. This will enable SMS to offer a complete system of rolling mill technology, including advanced cooling lubricants, to its customers worldwide. Houghton will expand business opportunities through its partnership with SMS as a leading rolling mill equipment supplier that shares experience in fluid applications and access to global metal producers.