For those that were thinking Shell might take a pass on this last round of price increases, think again. Although certainly later than most of the other majors, Shell letters out on June 5 announcing that it too would be raising the prices it charges marketers for its juice.

According to Jobbers World’s sources, effective July 10, the price for Pennzoil and Quaker State conventional, high mileage, blends and synthetic passenger car motor oil will reportedly increase $0.64 a gallon on packaged product and $0.48 a gallon on bulk.

On the heavy duty side of its business, Shell Rotella T, Rimula Premium, Pennzoil Long Life and Quaker State HDX conventional will increase $0.48 a gallon on bulk and package. Synthetic HDEO will increase by $0.52 a gallon.

Jobbers World has also learned that Shell’s mainstream & specialties Industrial lubricants will increase by 5-10% and its marine lubricants will increase by $0.56 a gallon.

Subscribe to Jobbers World for all the details on these and other price increases.

Although full details of its increase have not been seen, Jobbers World has learned that Valvoline will increase its marketer prices by $0.48 a gallon on bulk and $0.52 a gallon on packaged lubricants. These price increases are expected to go into effect in July.

In the previous issue of Jobbers World we incorrectly reported that Castrol was raising its marketer prices. Since that time, however, we have learned that although Castrol did announce a price increase for its lubricants, the increase effects only its retail class of trade. Consequently, marketers had not seen a price increase from Castrol at that time.

Castrol’s increases to the retail class of trade included Castrol GTX and HD PCEO going up $0.56 a gallon on packaged goods, and $0.52 a gallon on bulk. Its mid-tier lubricants, including Castrol high- mileage, GTX Startup, and synthetic blends, went up $0.60 a gallon on all package sizes. Syntec reportedly went up $0.64 a gallon at in the retail class of trade.

Ultrachem releases what may be the best handbook in the business on synthetic lubricants. Its new Lubricants and Specialty Products Handbook includes 112 pages of useful information on the synthetic lubricants market, including a primer on synthetic lubricants, an extensive oil cross-reference guide, an ester compatibility guide, temperature conversion charts and a viscosity chart.

This Handbook is the first edition of what Ultrachem’s Bob Whiting says is “a salesman’s aid.” According to Whiting, "it is spiral bound, can be easily folded flat, and is the perfect reference for the jobber who may not have a competitive line of synthetic lubricants available."

For more information on the handbook... contact Bob Whiting at (302) 325-9880.

According to several marketers in attendance at Summit’s training seminar last month in Tyler, TX, the seminar was “fantastic.” Summit reportedly demonstrated a broad-base of knowledge about synthetic lubricants. But even more impressive, one marketer said, “this was not a dog and pony show, they have genuine respect for their distributors."