Clean Harbors’ Safety-Kleen segment continued its run of rising revenues with another strong quarter for the quarter ending Sept. 30, while Vertex Energy Inc. reported in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing a 36% increase in gross profit and increased sales for its Heartland rerefinery business. Vertex also revealed it is exploring a potential sale of the Heartland business.
Clean Harbors
Norwell, Massachusetts-based Clean Harbors said its Safety-Kleen segment – which includes oil rerefining, waste oil collection and finished lubricants – reported third-party revenues of $282.8 million for its third quarter, a 36% increase from $207.6 million for the same period of 2021.
“Demand for our base oil was high in [the third quarter], and our network of rerefineries ran well, including the new Georgia plant we acquired in June,” President, CEO and Board Chairman Alan McKim said in a news release. “We also achieved growth across all of our recycling services offered in this segment, including oil filter collection and antifreeze recycling.
“Waste oil collections remained strong at 62 million gallons. The [Safety-Kleen] segment achieved its record performance in the quarter despite the fact that our blended volumes were severely limited by supply chain disruptions resulting from an industry-wide additive shortage. The additive industry is beginning to recover, and we expect our blended volumes to increase in 2023 as that remains part of our long-term growth strategy for this segment.”
Vertex Energy
Vertex operates the Heartland rerefinery in Columbus, Ohio, which can produce 1,500 barrels per day of API Group II base stocks and a rerefinery in Marrero, Louisiana, which produces finished vacuum gas oil.
The company has previously said it is still seeking a buyer for its used motor oil business – after canceling a planned sale of that business to Safety-Kleen’s parent, Clean Harbors, in January. Vertex revised its historical statements to present the operating results of the used motor oil business as discontinued operations.
Then in the Nov. 7 SEC filing for its third quarter earnings, Vertex said it was talking to an unidentified party about potential sale of the Heartland business. As a result, it now will present only that division – Heartland – as discontinued operations, while keeping the other used motor oil business operations out of assets held for sale.
Gross profit from the discontinued operations – now the Heartland business – were up 36% at $7.5 million, compared to $5.5 million. Income from operations increased 25% to $5 million, up from $4 million.
Second-quarter sales revenue from the discontinued operations jumped 53% to $22.2 million, compared to $14.5 million.
-George Gill contributed to this article