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...