Volume 16 Issue 48

SSY Base Oil Shipping Report

Activity levels have increased throughout all of Asia, and while some routes out of the U.S. Gulf and from Europe are also a touch busier, it seems to be a case of too little too late, as the remaining lanes continue to languish. U.S. Gulf As expected, December demand to the Far East has started to come good, with plenty of requirements around, such as cumene, ethylene dichloride, phenol, acrylonitrile, styrene and paraxylene. There is even an enquiry to ship 20,000 metric tons of methanol to Ch...

Forecast Sees Slim Lube Demand Growth

Global lubricant demand – including process and marine oils – is expected to increase at a compound annual rate of less than 1 percent, to 40 million metric tons by 2020, according to consultancy Kline & Co. Shell remained the top global supplier of finished lubricants last year for the 10th consecutive year, George Morvey, industry manager for Klines Energy Practice, said during a webinar Nov. 22. ExxonMobil was in second, followed by BP, Chevron, Total, PetroChina, Sinopec, Ide...

Expanded Calumet Plant to Blend Castrol Lubes

Calumet Specialty Products Partners L.P. said it will partner with BP Lubricants USA to begin blending Castrol motor oil in its newly expanded blending and packaging facility in Shreveport, Louisiana. In a news release Monday, Calumet said it greenlit the capital improvement project to expand the Shreveport facility, which was needed to support the growth of its branded and packaging business. The facility is a 15-acre space where the company manufactures, blends and packages specialty lubricant...

UEIL Helps Defeat Excise Tax Proposal

The Union of the European Lubricant Industry recently 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 [European] Commission multiple times, and that will probably happen again at some point, ...

API CK-4, FA-4 Diesel Engine Oils Available Dec. 1

Diesel engine oils meeting the American Petroleum Institutes new standards, API CK-4 and FA-4, will begin appearing in the marketplace tomorrow, bearing the organizations trademarks for those categories on containers and marketing materials. Earlier this year, APIs Lubricants Group approved the new API CK-4 and FA-4 specifications to address the varying needs of engine technologies – including aging, new and in use, both on-and off-highway – and to help diesel engine manufacturers me...

Russian Car Sales to Rebound in 2020

MOSCOW – Russias passenger car and light commercial vehicle parc could increase from 45 million units in 2015 to around 50 million in 2020, riding a projected economic rebound in 2018 that is expected to boost new car sales and motor oil consumption, a consultancy found. However, new car sales are expected to decline in 2016, with 1.3 million passenger cars and light commercial vehicles sold, or around 100,000 fewer units than last year, and 1.1 million fewer units than in 2014, according ...

Briefly Noted

RelaDyne acquired the lubricants and commercial fuel divisions of Slidell Oil Co., a distributor in Alabama, with locations in Montgomery and Dempolis. Chevron U.S.A. Inc. announced that, through a regional affiliate, it will add an additional storage facility for API Group II base oil in Le Havre, France, representing the fifth such supply hub in Europe for the Chevron Base Oils network. Initially grades will include 100 neutral and 220N, and a 600N oil may be added later.