June 2009 -- Fuel products manufacturer Calumet Specialty Products Partners L.P. benefited from declining crude oil prices during the first three months of 2009 as profit for the first quarter reached $75.6 million after posting a loss in the year-earlier period.
The profit gain was a $79 million increase over the previous year when the company was hit hard by oil price increases.
Gross profit for the company's specialty products and fuel products was $59.9 million and $19.1 million, respectively, compared with $22.3 million and $12.5 million, respectively in the year-ago period. Some gains achieved through lower oil prices were offset by weaker demand for lubricating oils, solvents and waxes due to the slow economy.
"Our proactive approach to managing our business in the current economic environment helped us to achieve good performance in the first quarter despite weaker demand for specialty products," said Bill Grube, Calumet's CEO and president, in a May 6 statement. "We are attempting to offset the impacts of this weaker demand by broadening our marketing efforts and focusing on specialty product development. We continue to focus on efficient plant operations to meet current demand levels and controlling operating costs. We also plan to continue to increase throughput rates at our Shreveport refinery to more fully utilize its expanded capacity as market conditions dictate."
