Profits Up for Fuchs, Down for BP Lubes

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Independent lubricants blender Fuchs Petrolub SE reported increases in profits and sales, while BPs lubricants business took a drop in profit for the third quarter, compared to 2017s third quarter.

Fuchs

Mannheim, Germany-based Fuchs posted 79 million (U.S. $90 million) in earnings after tax for the third quarter ending Sep. 30, a 19 percent increase from the 64 million it earned in the year-earlier period. Sales revenue for the blender reached 642 million, up 4.2 percent.

Revenue in Asia-Pacific and Africa hit 192 million, up 5.7 percent from 181 million. In North and South America, revenue jumped 7.6 percent to 105 million in 2018. However, revenue in Europe dropped 0.2 percent, from 391 million in 2017 to 390 million this year.

The Fuchs Group grew strongly organically in the first nine months. Over the course of the year, the growth has slowed down slightly, said Stefan Fuchs, chairman of the executive board of Fuchs, in the companys earnings release.

Currently, he continued, the generally positive economic environment is clouding over due to increasing trade disputes and economic uncertainties in different countries. We expect a slowdown of the sales growth in the automotive sector, particularly in Germany and China, and, therefore, the organic sales growth will not be as strong for Fuchs in the remaining months of the year.

BP

London-based BPs lubricants business reported an underlying replacement cost profit before interest and tax of $324 million for the third quarter, down 9.8 percent from $356 million in the same quarter last year.

The result for the quarter reflects continued premium volume growth, more than offset by the adverse lag impact of increasing base oil prices, as well as adverse foreign exchange rate movements in the quarter, BP said in its stock exchange announcement.

Replacement cost profit or loss reflects the replacement cost of inventories sold in the period and is arrived at by excluding inventory holding gains and losses from profit or loss, according to BPs stock exchange announcement.

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