Price Increase and more price increases
The
leader in this year's round of price increase was
Chevron. Chevron advised its marketers on
February 21 that the price of its finished
lubricants would increase by 5 to 9%
effective March 20. Although it seemed for a
while that Chevron might be going it alone,
on April 18th ExxonMobil advised its
marketers that effective May 1, it would
increase the price of its branded and
unbranded lubricants and greases by up to 9%.
ConocoPhillips made its announcement the
following day when it advised its marketers
that effective May 1, it would raise the
prices on all of its lubricants by 5 to 10%
The third announcement came on March 20th.
That's the date Shell sent letters out to all
its marketers saying there will be a general
price increase of up to 10% on its
lubricants. This increase went into effect on
May 2.
CITGO followed four days later when it
announced on March 24th a general price
increase of 10% effective May 1. It should be
noted that in addition to that increase,
CITGO announced on February 26th that
effective April 1 it would increase the price
of its MileMaster brand up $0.14 a gallon.
But the price increases didn't stop there. To the
surprise of many Chevron marketers, Chevron
did it again when it announced on May 7th a
price increase of 9% to 18% on its
lubricants and greases. This increase goes
into effective June 19, 2008.
Considering the price of base oil has gone up
close to $0.30 a gallon just over the last
month, and some additive companies have also
increased their prices recently, it's not
hard to understand the justification given
this time around for the higher price of
finished lubricant.
... and with the price of crude oil reaching
record highs, and a number of chemical
companies announcing large price increases as
a result of the escalating price of crude,
it should not come as a surprise
that more price increases on finished
lubricants were on the way...