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Well, what a year.

The first eight months of the year saw dramatic price increases. Likewise blenders and luboil producers reacted by means of additional purchases and stockpiling.

In addition Turkey entered the market taking out substantial volumes of base oils during the first half of the year. This pushed prices even higher and resulted in shortages especially for the light grades.

Then the turn. Prices leveled out in August at high numbers and stayed pretty stable during September before we saw prices starting to tumble at the beginning of October.

Since then prices dropped even more dramatically as they increased in the months before. As a result purchasers leaned back waiting, using up stocks and having no intention to buy more than the minimum.

The financial crisis which took most people by surprise by the impact it had on the feedstock markets heavily contributed to the deflationary situation.

For the upcoming time we expect due to the decreasing demand of production in industrial segments a destabilized market with a lower level of demand.

For sure this year’s dramaturgy will be an issue at ICIS conference and highly interested to have talks with you.