Volume 1 Issue 9

SSY Base Oil Shipping Report

It has been a pretty slow week overall, with all the main trading areas reporting lower cargo volumes. Asia is just restarting after the holidays, but it is unclear why the other regions are inactive.-by Adrian Brown

Mavis, Express Oil to Merge

Mavis Discount Tire agreed to merge with Express Oil Change & Tire Engineers, creating one of the largest independent chains of auto service providers in the United States. The merged chain will have more than 830 locations offering oil changes and other services.

Equity Firm Buys Stake in ZXP

A Houston private equity firm agreed this month to take an undisclosed stake in contract lubricant blender and packager ZXP Technologies Ltd.

Cosan Reports Healthy 2017

Despite a weak fourth quarter, Moove - Cosans lubricant production and distribution arm - had a strong 2017 marked by increased lubricant sales volume and healthy net revenue, the company said in its earnings report.

From Other Editions of Lube Report

Briefly Noted

Harvey Lewis Golubock, American Refining Groups former president and chief operating officer, passed away Feb. 24. Phillips 66 spent $3.3 billion to buy back 35 million shares of its stock from backer Berkshire Hathaway, which reduced its stake in Phillips 66 from 17.3 percent to 9.8 percent to avoid regulatory requirements. Brazils Petrobras signed a deal with British car maker McLaren Automotive to co-develop Formula One fuels and lubricants.

Correction

An article in the Feb. 21 issue erroneously reported the size of forecasted changes in lubricant consumption for the Americas and Canada. Freedonia Group estimated that the hemispheres demand will decrease by 50,000 metric tons to 6.3 million tons from 2016 to 2021. Kline & Co. predicted that demand in Canada will decline at a compound annual rate of 1 percent from 2017 to 2021. In addition, to clarify, it was Freedonia not Kline that estimated BP is the largest lube supplier in Central and South America.