Volume 1 Issue 3

SSY Base Oil Shipping Report

U.S. rates to Asia are shooting up, but are stable to other destinations. Europe is more active on all fronts compared to last week, while Asia is regarded as slower.-by Adrian Brown

SN Plus Date Still Up in the Air

The American Petroleum Institutes Lubricants Standards Group formally adopted API SN Plus last week but still has not set a date for first licensing. The group - along with automakers - would like that date to be May 1, but a schedule has been held up by testing related to base oil interchange and read-across rules for one of the tests in the supplemental oil category.

ASTM Passenger Car Panel Gets New Leader

General Motors Angela Willis has succeeded Valvolines Thom Smith as chairman of the Passenger Car Engine Oil Classification Panel, the first time an OEM stakeholder representative has led the key industry group.

WD-40 Posts Higher Profits

WD-40 Co. reported net income of $12.6 million for the quarter ending Nov. 30, a 6.8 percent increase from a year earlier.

From Other Editions of Lube Report

Shell to Raise Finished Lube Prices

Shell informed U.S. customers about a price increase of up to 5 percent on finished lubricants effective Feb. 19, with different effective dates and/or price amounts in some instances. The U.S. finished lubricants market experienced three rounds of price increases during 2017. One round ranging from 3 percent to 8 percent took place from around Feb. 20 through March 20. A second round of increases, most in the range of 3 percent to 9 percent, took effect mainly from mid-May into early June. A third round of price increases took effect from early through mid-December.