Shell Lubricants will be closing its lube blending plant at the Mississippi River Port of Vicksburg by December 1. The company said that it is consolidating its operations into nine other blending and packaging facilities it owns and operates in the United States.

An explosion and massive fire broke out last Thursday morning at the Sterling Services Ltd. facility in Hamtramck, Michigan, just outside of Detroit. Sterling Services Ltd. is a subsidiary of Southfield-based Sterling Oil & Chemical Co. Inc. The fire was extinguished several hours later. There were no reports of injuries.

D-A Lubricant Company is celebrating 90 years in business, having opened its doors in Indianapolis in 1919. D-A is a privately held, locally managed company, having been purchased in 2002 from Premier Industrial Corporation of Cleveland, who merged in 1996 to become Premier Farnell Corporation LLC.

Chemtool Incorporated last week signed a letter of intent with Woodward Governor Company to purchase Woodward Governor's Rockton, IL facility as its new corporate headquarters. The sale is expected to close next month. Chemtool is already in the process of building a 450-thousand square foot manufacturing facility in Rockton.

This past week BASF announced price increases worldwide for carbonates and for both ethanolamines and carboxylic acids in Europe. These increases range from 40 €/ton for Diethanolamine (DEOA) up to 120 €/ton for 2-Ethyl-hexanoic Acid (2-EHA) in Europe.

• Cognis’ First Half-Year Results for 2009
• Sinopec Corp. Announces 2009 Interim Results 
• Toyota Recalls 688,000 Cars In China Due to Faulty Electronic Window Control Systems Caused by Over Use of Lubricants During Manufacturing Process
• Valero Closes 275,000 BPD Aruba Refinery Indefinitely
• Toyota to End Production at NUMMI Plant in Freemont March 2010
• LUKOIL 2Q 2009 Net Income Increased by Almost 160% Q-O-Q,to $2.3 Billion