Lubricating oil demand in the Americas market was mixed in July as a slump in US consumption outweighed firmer demand in Latin America.Total lube consumption in US, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina combined fell to around 463,000t in July, government data showed. The volume was down from more than 725,000t in June and 26pc lower than year-earlier levels..Even with the slowdown, total consumption of 4.40mn t in the first seven months of the year was up 5pc from 4.20mn t during the same period last year.Firm lube consumption so far this year highlighted the diverging demand trends in different regions around the world. The trends correlated with their relative economic growth.Shrinking lube consumption in Europe coincided with a sharper slowdown in economic growth in that region. .Europe's July lube demand falls.A slump in lube demand in China similarly mirrored that country’s slowdown in economic activity this year.Base oils producers in Asia-Pacific especially have responded by moving surplus supplies to regions where demand has been firmer, such as the Americas market.Excluding the US, lube demand in the three other Americas markets combined rose in July for a fifth straight month. Demand in Mexico and Argentina especially continued to rise strongly even as interest rates rose sharply in those countries.The strong demand lifted the Latin American countries’ share of the Americas' lube consumption, including the US, to 33pc of the total in July. The share was the highest this year and up from typical levels of well below 25pc of the total.Even US demand has remained strong this year. The sharp drop in the country’s lube consumption in July was less reflective of the state of end-user consumption. It reflected more the buyers’ changing procurement patterns in response to rising prices during the second quarter of the year.The Americas region’s lube demand growth faced the prospect of slowing over the coming months in the face of an expected slowdown in US economic growth.Even so, the size of the market and the speed of the growth in the Latin American markets especially highlighted the attraction for base oils producers to target the region with more supplies.
