Industry Sectors

Lubricants and greases are formulated products, typically a combination of a base oil and additives, that reduce friction and wear of surfaces and facilitate cooling. Products are highly specialized formulas such as engine oils, hydraulic fluids, and metalworking fluids including cutting & grinding fluids, drawing & stamping fluids, metal cleaners, and corrosion preventatives, among others. These finished fluids and the additive packages that help define their performance characteristics require deep domain expertise, with small and mid-sized participants competing with large, multinational producers and distributors. Mergers and acquisitions can play a significant role in building out capabilities and breadth.

Fuels are ubiquitous throughout our everyday lives and are used in both transportation, industrial, power generation and other settings. In addition to standardized diesel, gasoline and diesel exhaust fluids, emerging technologies include bio-based fuels derived from plants, algae and animal biomass, hydrogen fuels, and other advanced propellants for aerospace, defense, transportation and power generation applications. In high-volume applications, economies of scale are critical to success, which is often achieved through acquisitions into adjacent markets, geographies and product lines. 

Serving both the lubricants and fuels industries are additive producers that provide enhanced performance and extend the life of fluids to meet specific application needs. Here, as with lubricants formulators, formulation expertise is critical for success.