Here’s a segment of the tank-trailer business that falls in the something-new category: Refiners are buying trucks to fetch more desirable crude oil than what they’re getting through pipelines. It seems hard-to-refine tar-sands oil from Canada is being blended with lighter crude, and the mixes are inconsistent, more difficult to deal with and less profitable.
One refiner recently bought 200 tank trailers and 120 tractors to carry crude oil and asphalt to its plants in Arkansas and east Texas, said a Reuters article that was carried yesterday by Yahoo News. HDT Editor In Chief Deborah Lockridge asked Don Ake, vice president, commercial vehicles for FTR, the research firm, for comment.
