Valvoline and Lubrizol have been named the 2010 winners of the SAE Environmental Excellence in Transportation (E2T) Award for their partnership in demonstrating the environmental benefits of Valvoline motor oils with Lubrizol HyperZDP™ System. Winners were announced on Tuesday, April 13, 2010 at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) World Congress held in Detroit, MI.

Lubrizol announced last Thursday that consolidated earnings for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010 nearly doubled to $162.3 million compared to earnings for the first quarter of 2009 of $64.2 million. Consolidated revenues for the first quarter increased 30 percent to $1.32 billion compared with $1.01 billion in the first quarter of 2009.

Fiat Group recently announced that it will fully integrate its Fiat automobile lineup with Chrysler Group while its construction and industrial business units (such as Case Construction Equipment, New Holland Construction, Iveco, and FPT Industrial & Marine) are being placed into a "demerged" company, Fiat Industrial SpA. Fiat SpA would then include Fiat Auto and the auto-related segments.

The major integrated oil companies posted strong earnings for the first quarter 2010. BP, first to report last Tuesday, said profits soared 138 percent to $6.08 billion. ConocoPhillips followed by reporting its earnings rose to $2.1 billion from $800 million in the year-ago period, an increase of 162 percent. Chevron last Friday reported earnings of $4.55 billion for the first quarter 2010, compared with $1.84 billion in the 2009 first quarter, an increase of 147 percent.

Valvoline's sales increased 6 percent over the year-ago March quarter, to $430 million, and total lubricant volume increased by 16 percent. Overall, Valvoline's quarterly EBITDA was $78 million, as compared with $75 million in the year-ago March quarter and $76 million in the December 2009 quarter. The EBITDA margin was 18.1 percent in the March 2010 quarter, the fifth consecutive quarter in excess of 18 percent.

Amalie announced on April 16, 2010 it will increase its finished lubricant prices by 32 cents per gallon and by 4 to 6 cents per pound for greases effective May 17, 2010. While Shell, Castrol, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, CITGO, ExxonMobil, Valvoline, Petro-Canada and many independents announced lube price increases earlier this year, this is Amalie’s first increase of 2010. The increase is for most items in all package sizes including bulk.

Cognis announced excellent preliminary operating results in the first quarter of 2010, significantly exceeding results of the first quarter of 2009. Adjusted EBITDA of 131 million euros were 79.6 percent higher compared to the first quarter of 2009. BASF reported last Thursday that it’s business continued to develop favorably in the first quarter of 2010 with sales increasing by 26% to €15.5 billion.

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