Europe’s Q4 lube demand set to fall

Europe’s lubricating oil demand is set to fall in the fourth quarter of the year as a seasonal dip in consumption coincides with anemic economic growth.

Lube demand is likely to fall below 550,000t in the final three months of the year, down from less than 580,000t during the third quarter, according to the Baseoilnews.com short-term outlook.

Demand typically bottoms out in the month of December before recovering from the start of the new year.

Lube consumption at the end of this year faces the prospect of falling even lower than during the fourth quarter of 2022 before rising in the first quarter of next year.