Retail motor oil sales remains a brutally competitive marketplace with minimal brand loyalty. I doubt that the price increases, if any, will match the rate of increase of gasoline.
Demand exceeds supply for gasoline, but supply exceeds demand for motor oils.
I would be more concerned about cost reducing formulation changes and a potential race to the bottom where the much better than API-SL dino oils makers save some money by becoming more like the "meets minimum requirements" SL oils.
The real profits in motor oils today are from selling the various upmarket oils like high mileage, synthetic blends, synthetics, etc. Every oil marketer is struggling to capture more premium priced business. Valvoline's agressive case for free promotions first on their high mileage oil and now on SynPower full synthetic (thanks for that, by the way!) is an example of how far a company will go to try and win customers for it's premium priced products. The profit per quart on these premium oils has to be many times higher than on the regular stuff.
John
Demand exceeds supply for gasoline, but supply exceeds demand for motor oils.
I would be more concerned about cost reducing formulation changes and a potential race to the bottom where the much better than API-SL dino oils makers save some money by becoming more like the "meets minimum requirements" SL oils.
The real profits in motor oils today are from selling the various upmarket oils like high mileage, synthetic blends, synthetics, etc. Every oil marketer is struggling to capture more premium priced business. Valvoline's agressive case for free promotions first on their high mileage oil and now on SynPower full synthetic (thanks for that, by the way!) is an example of how far a company will go to try and win customers for it's premium priced products. The profit per quart on these premium oils has to be many times higher than on the regular stuff.
John