The new list of signatories also includes details of the lubricant brands that are covered by each marketers LoC. This is designed to provide greater transparency around the products on the market making performance claims against the ACEA Oil Sequences and that have been developed in accordance with the EELQMS.

LoC signatories are eligible for technical training events organized by ATIEL that support formulators and marketers in their understanding of the EELQMS and compliance with its requirements. Lubricant marketers products may also be included in the independent quality surveys that ATIEL conducts to test the validity of performance claims made for products in the market. Individual LoC signatories receive in confidence results of any of their products tested as part of the survey work. The new lists of LoC signatories are available on the ATIEL website at www.atiel.org.

Additiv-Chemie Luers Opens New Lab

German additive producer Additiv-Chemie Luers GmbH has inaugurated a new state-of-the-art laboratory at its production site in Delmenhorst, Germany. The company produces additives for metalworking fluids, industrial lubricants, cleaners and specialty products.

Additiv-Chemie Luers doubled the size of its lab facilities, which are used for quality control a well as research and development – with the development section separated from quality control. With the new lab, we will expand our range of testing equipment for the development of new products as well as for existing products, said Managing Director Johann von Cossel.

With the opening of the new lab, the company also introduced a label-free heavy sodium sulfonate. The product has an average molecular weight of 530. The intention is to extend that range of products as well as continue the development of green products.

Hydrodec UK Becomes Slicker

Hydrodec UK announced that it has rebranded itself as Slicker Recycling Ltd. In March 2016, the Hydrodec Group sold Hydrodec UK for 1 to Andrew Black, a nonexecutive director of Hydrodec Group. The sale included the transfer of around 1.2 million of debt.

Black said he intends to pursue plans to build the U.K.s first base oil re-refinery. If this plan comes to fruition, the Hydrodec Group will be entitled to 10 percent of net profits from the project, although Black will bear all the risks and responsibility for developing it.

UEIL Helps Defeat Excise Tax

The Union of the European Lubricant Industry helped defeat a proposal to bring bulk lubricants under the European Unions Excise Movement and Control System. A UEIL staff member said the outcome helped lubricant companies avoid significant new administrative expenses, but he warned that the proposal will likely arise again in the future.

This idea, in one form or another, has already come before the Commission multiple times, and that will probably happen again at some point, Gregoire Poisson, a lawyer with the UEIL Secretariat, said at the associations Annual Congress in Berlin in November. Its an issue that we will need to monitor and be vigilant against.

Like many products, lubricants are already subject to excise taxes, but they are not among the energy products that fall under the Excise Movement and Control System, a program designed to prevent avoidance of tax payment. The EMCS allows governments to track the movement of goods sold across national borders within the EU to ensure that the excise tax is paid when the goods reach their destination.

UEIL stated that even small lubricant suppliers would have to hire additional staff to do the work required if bulk lubes were brought under the EMCS.

MOL to Boost Lube Presence

Oil major Mol plans to upgrade or expand its base oil plant in Szazhalombatta, Hungary, as part of a five-year capital investment program, but said it was too early to reveal any details. The company is set to invest up to U.S. $130 million by 2021 to modernize its refineries in Slovakia and Hungary.

Base oil is one of the attractive product segments we are looking into when building our non-fuel strategy, Berzi Tamas, Mol Groups spokesperson, said in an interview. However, the exact details about investments in this segment and types of products are not defined yet. The investment is part of a broader $1.9 billion expansion of its petrochemical business scheduled for completion by 2021.

Mol said it will continue to improve its downstream program and will take advantage of the growing demand for such profitable products as jet fuel, lubricants and base oils. The demand for our [lubricants and base oils] production … is growing significantly greater than the market demand, Tamas said. We see great opportunities to capture more market share in our core countries while stepping out of the Central and Eastern European region and developing our export sales even further.

Mol operates an 80,000 tons per year lubricants facility and technology center in Almasfuzito, northwest Hungary, where lubricant arm Mol-Lub is located. It also owns a 50,000 t/y blending plant in Zagreb, Croatia. The plant manufactures lubricants, greases, additives and automotive chemical products.