SK Lubricants operating profit for the quarter ending June 30 reached 79.4 billion South Korean won (U.S. $77.4 million), up almost 172 percent from 29.2 billion won a year earlier. Sales rose to 740.7 billion won from 681.8 billion won, an 8.6 percent increase.

SK operates a 40,000 barrel per day API Group II/III base oil plant at its refinery complex in Ulsan, South Korea, which includes a 26,000 b/d joint venture base oil plant built by SK Innovation and JX Nippon Oil & Energy, launched in May 2012.

SK Lubricants also has a joint venture plant with Pertamina in Dumai, Indonesia, with 10,000 b/d of Group III capacity. It is partnering with Repsol on a new 12,000 b/d Group II/III base oil plant in Cartagena, Span, with production expected later this year.

S-Oil

Second-quarter operating income for S-Oils lubricants business segment jumped to 72.5 billion won from 49.5 billion won in the year-ago quarter, up 46.4 percent. Revenue grew 27.7 percent to 512.1 billion won, from 401 billion won a year earlier.

Headquartered in Seoul, S-Oil said in its earnings presentation that expanded sales volume in advanced countries with higher margins helped to maximize its profits. In its second quarter outlook the company said it expects the market to face downward pressure as competitors new plants will begin operation. However, healthy spread will be supported by on-going demand growth for high quality products and rising automobile sales in major lube markets.

S-Oils Onsan, South Korea, refinery has 20,000 b/d Group III, 20,500 b/d of Group II and 500 b/d Group I capacity.

Heritage-Crystal Clean

Heritage-Crystal Cleans oil business, including oil collection and rerefining, posted $36.4 million in sales for the quarter ending June 14, up 31.4 percent from $27.7 million in sales in the year-earlier quarter.

As a whole, Elgin, Ill.-based Heritage-Crystal Clean reported almost $2 million in net income for its second fiscal quarter, on $78.1 million in sales or 10 cents per diluted share. That compares to $1.1 million in net income, on sales of $63.6 million in sales, or 6 cents per diluted share in 2013s second quarter. The company doesnt break out net income for its oil business segment.

The oil business figures reflect sales of base oil, intermediate products and byproducts from its Indianapolis rerefinery, which has 2,400 b/d of Group II capacity.

Joe Chalhoub, the companys founder, president and CEO, said its results in the second quarter represented a strong improvement compared to the first quarter when several winter weather negatively impacted the companys performance. Revenue grew considerably during the second quarter in our oil business segment as a result of the expanded capacity at our rerefinery, he said in a news release. However, while we saw some improvement in the market price of base oil at the end of the second quarter, the market still remains challenging.

In the oil business segment, the average market price for the type of Group II base oil we sell decreased during the second quarter of 2014 compared to the year earlier quarter, said Mark DeVita, Heritage-Crystal Cleans chief financial officer. This offset some of the base oil sales volume improvement we experienced during the quarter on a year-over-year basis. We were successful in continuing our program to reduce the amount we pay for used oil during the second quarter. We also increased the average efficiency of our used oil collection routes during the quarter.

Chemtura

Philadelphia-based Chemturas petroleum additives segment posted $183 million in net sales for the second quarter, up 1 percent from $182 million in the year earlier quarter.

Chemturas Industrial Performance Products net sales increased 2 percent to $259 million, up from $254 million in 2013s second quarter. The segments second quarter operating income decreased 16.1 percent to $26 million in the second quarter of this year. Sales volume increased primarily due to increased customer demand for our urethane products, particularly industrial foam, general industrial and material production applications and higher selling prices for our petroleum additive products, which was partly offset by decreases in average selling prices for our urethane products, the company said in its July 29 earnings release.

The companys Industrial Performance Products segment fell short of its second quarter 2013 performance, due to timing differences in the recovery of raw material costs increases and in customer orders towards the end of the quarter, Craig Rogerson, chairman, president and CEO of Chemtura, said in the companys quarterly earnings news release. We expect the segment to overcome these issues as the year progresses and remain on track to deliver year-over-year sales and profitability improvement in 2014. Customer qualifications of Chemturas Netherlands high-viscosity polyalphaolefin facility continue on trick to permit sales from the facility to commence in the second half of 2014, Rogerson noted.