Adrian Brown is away. His column will return next week. Adrian Brown is a senior market analyst for chemicals and base oils with SSY Shipbrokers, London, can be reached atfix@ssychems.comor +44 12 0750 7507. Information about SSY can be found atwww.ssyonline.com. In the Houston office,Steve Rosenthalof SSY’s Chemical Tanker Department can be reached directly at +1 (713) 652-2700 and Jordi Maymi in Singapore can be reached at +65 6854-7127.

Operating at a relaxed but steady pace for most of the year, U.S. base oil refiners delivered a respectable 60.6 million barrels of paraffinic and naphthenic stocks in 2016, according to data released yesterday by the federal Energy Information Administration. That fat, round number is near-echo of the 60.7 million barrels that domestic producers supplied two years ago in 2014, and is one of the best full-year totals since the recession slashed output to just 55 million barrels in 2009. Neverthe...

With growing supply surpluses and shrinking capital budgets, the number of new base oil plants and expansions entering the development pipeline should slow in coming years, an industry insider told a lubricant conference recently. Consultant Stephen B. Ames also predicted that a significant number of existing plants will close. The margin outlook is not conducive to opportunistic base oil investment, Ames, principal of Pepper Pike, Ohio-based SBA Consulting, told the ICIS World Base Oils & L...

Nynas posted a decrease in operational cash flow for its naphthenic unit, Calumet Specialty Products Partners reported a net loss, and operating income was down for Chemturas Industrial Performance Products segment. Clean Harbors Safety-Kleen segment posted an increase in third-party revenues, and Milacron reported higher operating income for its Industrial Fluids segment, all for the fourth quarter, compared to the year-earlier quarter. Nynas Nynas naphthenic business unit, which supplies mostl...

LONDON – Despite Irans disappointing economic performance since international economic sanctions were lifted last year, foreign companies could still reap the benefits of doing business in the country, Geeta Agashe told attendees at an industry conference here earlier this month. During a seminar ahead of the ICIS World Base Oils & Lubricants Conference, the consultant pointed out that Iran has the largest population in the Middle East with around 80 million people, more than 60 percen...