With the exception of Europe, there have been few signs of the fabled summer doldrums in either the U.S. or Asia, where rising demand for vessel space has caused freights to increase. U.S. Gulf August space into the Far East filled out some time back, and now September is looking very tight on space. A combination of strong spot demand and heavy contractual volumes has just about eaten up what space there was, and now charterers are scouting around to see if outsiders will come on berth. Freight...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – While meeting here last week to consider a proposed supplemental engine oil category, the American Petroleum Institutes Lubricants Group also discussed how to shore up the engine tests used for the API SN engine oil category in order to avoid its demise. The Lubricants Group laid out the action items needed to sustain API SN and SN-Resource Conserving, which include: Photo courtesy of Lubrizol The Sequence IIIG test is among those being replaced in API SN and in the upc...

Demand for API Group I base stock in lubricants is expected to continue to decline through 2026, gradually superseded by Group II and III in automotive applications but remaining popular in industrial applications, according to Kline & Co. The Parsippany, New Jersey-based consultancy estimated global demand for lubricant base stocks at 35.5 million tons in 2016. However, Group I is expected to retain its market position in industrial applications, especially in the high-viscosity range, whe...

Gazpromneft-Lubricants sold 140,000 metric tons of lubricants in the first half of 2017, up 16 percent compared to the year-earlier period, the company said. In the first half of 2017 Gazpromneft-Lubricants sold 24,000 tons of its G-Energy-branded oils, up 26 percent from the year-earlier period, the company said in a news release on Monday. G-Energy is the companys flagship brand. In Russia, in the first half of 2017, the company sold 93,000 tons of various types of motor oils, up 19 percent co...

BASFs performance products segment reported lower income from operations during the second quarter, while income from operations was up for its chemicals segment, compared to year-earlier results. The companys performance products segment posted 363 million (U.S. $427 million) in income from operations in the second quarter, down 27 percent. The chemicals segment was up 144 percent at 1.1 billion, which the company attributed primarily to higher margins in its monomers and petrochemicals divisio...