Grease Price Increase
Lubricant marketers got word earlier this week that Lubrication Engineers (LE) announced an increase on the price of lithium complex grease. The increase is said to be in the range of 27%, and effective immediately.
As readers may recall from the January 18, 2023 issue of JobbersWorld, Chevron was the first we reported on this year to announce an increase in the price of grease. At the same time Chevron announced a general posted price decrease on lubricants of up to 8% taking effect on January 12, 2023, marketers were advised that the posted price of Chevron’s greases will increase by up to 17%, effective February 13, 2023.
Update: 3/14/2023
Lubrication Engineers Price Increase
Paul Grimes, President at Lubrication Engineers (LE), reached out to JobbersWorld today to advise that although in some instances customer-specific specialty greases may have increased by the level recently reported in JobbersWorld, that increase is not reflective of the general price adjustment of 5% that LE implemented this month, effective March 20, 2023.
Grimes notes that while the industry has seen some softening of some base oil prices since the start of the year, the costs of labor, regulatory compliance, insurance, energy, and fuel have risen above any offset in base oil prices. In addition, inputs necessary to produce lubricants continue to see increases.