Astron Energy Latest Insights

THE LATEST BLOGS ON INDUSTRY TRENDS AND INSIGHTS, TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS IN LUBRICANTS, HOW DIGITAL AI IS IMPACTING THE INDUSTRY, LUBRICATION BEST PRACTICES FROM TECHNICAL AND THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY FROM ASTRON ENERGY EXPERTS, PARTNERS AND CUSTOMERS.

Friday, December 1, 2023

How Industry Professionals Can Reduce Diesel Water Contamination

The integrity of diesel fuel is paramount for the seamless operation of machinery in various industries. Water contamination in diesel is a pervasive challenge that can undermine f...

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Winter Diesel Gelling Guidelines for Industry Professionals

As the temperature drops, industry personnel in charge of enormous stores of diesel must deal with a recurring winter problem: diesel gelling. During the colder months, this phenom...

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Diesel’s Colour vs Quality

While the colour of diesel fuel is sometimes overlooked in the context of fuel performance and engine maintenance, it contains a plethora of information. Professionals in sectors t...

Friday, April 14, 2023

Base Oil Pricing and The Exchange Rate

Base oils are necessary for the creation of lubricants, which are required for the smooth operation of machinery in a variety of industries. The cost of base oil is a crucial facto...

Tuesday, April 11, 2023

Predicting the Future Pricing of Diesel in South Africa

Locally, diesel dominates the market as a fuel source used in transportation and energy generation. The price of diesel has an impact across the board. Consequently, there is a nee...

Thursday, April 6, 2023

Storage, Stability and Estimated Shelf Life of Finished Lubricants

Most materials deteriorate over time, including finished lubricants. That is why knowing what to look for in lubricants, including their shelf life, is critical in determining whet...

Thursday, April 6, 2023

This April we look at the ins and outs of fuel price dynamics

The cost of diesel has a considerable impact on the operational efficiency of a business. If businesses don’t take an intelligent, informed approach toward cost optimisation, they ...

Thursday, March 23, 2023

Astron Energy At The 2023 Mining Indaba

At the recent Investing in African Mining Indaba, the spotlight was put firmly on new sources of sustainable energy, with South Africa said to be strategically placed to be a regio...

Thursday, October 13, 2022

Changing landscape of route planning

The transport industry has seen a significant improvement in route planning over the past decade with many more advancements to come. In this article, we take a look at how this la...

Thursday, October 6, 2022

What The Rest Of 2022 Holds For The Manufacturing Industry

For the first quarter of 2022, the manufacturing industry showed a positive trajectory, but the recent Absa Manufacturing Survey underscores the noteworthy constraints the sector u...

Thursday, October 6, 2022

Global Supplychain Constraints On Local Lubricant Stock

The factors that influenced the current global and domestic shortage of base oil and lubricants all impacted on each other. Supply chain disruptions are nothing new, especially in ...

Monday, October 3, 2022

Recuperating Fuel Spend with Schedule 9 Tax Claim

In 2000 South Africa introduced a system whereby qualifying primary industries could apply for a tax rebate for their spending on diesel in their activities or production processes...

Friday, September 23, 2022

What The 4th Industrial Revolution Means For South Africa

The recent Manufacturing Indaba underscored the power of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) to revolutionalise SA’s 3.0 level industries. Benefits include increased productivity, ...

Monday, September 5, 2022

The Advantages Of Advanced Fuel Filtration

Clean diesel fuel helps the performance and durability of modern diesel engines. Inorganic particles in diesel fuel can cause abrasive wear to the injection fuel system and piston ...

Tuesday, August 30, 2022

Keep the wheels rolling with commercial oil and lubricant offerings

As the owner and operator of one of South Africa’s largest crude oil refineries, Astron Energy is a leading supplier of petroleum products in the country. Astron Energy as licensee...

Monday, August 29, 2022

Diesel fuel differentiation – the role of multifunctional additives

Innovation is an ongoing requirement to remain competitive in the fuel additives business, often driven by legislation that demands higher quality fuels. For example, diesel produc...

Thursday, August 25, 2022

The Impact Of High Crude Oil Prices On Lubricant Costs

Higher crude prices have led to an increase in transportation costs. Lubricant price increases are directly tied to the economy as a whole and can be influenced by many external fa...

Friday, August 19, 2022

The Preservation Of Diesel Product Integrity

There are many misconceptions about customer diesel supply in South Africa. In this article, we take a look at a follow-up on our Life of Diesel article and delve into the importan...

Thursday, June 30, 2022

Astron Energy Retains Level 1 B-BBEE Status

South African petroleum company Astron Energy has retained its Level 1 B-BBEE status for the second year running. Astron Energy, a licensee of the Caltex brand in South Africa, was...

Wednesday, May 25, 2022

Winter Diesel

Over the winter months in South Africa, the low-temperature operability of diesel fuel becomes increasingly important. During this period, and for the most part only in the coldest...

Thursday, May 12, 2022

Understanding Gear Oils

There’s often confusion about the American Petroleum Institute (API) classifications used for gearbox or transmission oil specifications. Therefore, individuals responsible for sel...

Thursday, May 5, 2022

Water contamination in diesel: How to reduce the risk

Fuel contamination is a common topic when discussing diesel storage. Those who keep diesel for extended periods of time will often worry about what will happen if water leaks into ...

Friday, March 25, 2022

Minimizing costs and downtime in the Energy Sector

At Astron Energy, we don’t accept the status quo, particularly when challenges are industry-wide and costly. We sat down with David MacIntyre, Finished Lubricants Technical Manager...

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Four lubrication tips to extend diesel engine life

Known as the workhorses of the engine world, diesel engines are rugged, economical, and reliable. Over the years, these engines have advanced to include many unparalleled mechanica...

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

Oil viscosity and how to choose the right grade

Engine oils are essential to a vehicle’s performance and lifespan, and viscosity is an important attribute. Knowing how to determine the right oil viscosity for your vehicle is v...

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

What fleet operators need to know about commercial lubricants

Today’s challenges on modern fleet maintenance are becoming more demanding, predominantly defined by changes in equipment, regulatory controls, and the constant pressure to keep th...

Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Myth Buster: Aftermarket fuel additives in tanks improve engines.

In this third delivery of our Myth Buster blog series, we address two commonly-held perceptions in South Africa – that diesel vehicles are the primary source of nitrogen oxide (NOx...

Friday, December 10, 2021

The life of diesel

Diesel begins its life as a crude oil fraction, which undergoes a number of processing steps starting with fractional distillation. The crude oil is heated and pumped into a tall d...

Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Busting the myths on diesel fuel – Part 5

Diesel density and stability - In this blog, the last in our five-part Myth Buster series, we explore the myth that diesel density is too close to petrol to justify claims that it ...

Saturday, November 13, 2021

Myth Buster: Busting the myths on diesel fuel

In this penultimate delivery of our Myth Buster blog series, we take a brief look at the often misguided assumption that new diesel engines need less care and treatment. We also di...

Thursday, October 28, 2021

Women are the Heartbeat of Astron Energy’s Operational Efficiencies

More than two decades after South Africa achieved democracy, women's empowerment is still a topic of discussion in the corporate and business world. Many companies are still laggin...

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Myth Buster: Modern diesel technology drives the future

The advent of alternative fuels and the potential of all-electric vehicles have given rise to some misconceptions about the future of diesel, with some proclaiming that diesel is o...

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Myth Buster: Busting the myths on diesel fuel

Diesel is the undisputed lifeblood of commercial land transport that keeps the economic wheels rolling in most countries, yet it’s often touted as the ‘bad boy’ when it comes to po...

Wednesday, August 4, 2021

Paying Attention to the Future

If there is one takeaway from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is the fact that we’d better start paying attention to something beyond what happens daily. It’s very easy to fall into the ...

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Learning from the Pandemic

Looking back over this past year, there are some key learnings regarding how the pandemic has impacted customer behaviour. In our last article we spoke about the need to take time ...

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Realising diesel savings to boost your bottom line

Transporters can meet contracted rates effortlessly when they have the option to use an extensive network of service stations offering special diesel prices – thus providing signif...

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Key trends shaping the international and local mining sector

According to the latest data from the Minerals Council of South Africa, mining contributed R376-billion to GDP*, and remains the mainstay of our economy. But the world of mining is...

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Factors affecting the price of lubricants

Finished lubricants keep the world running, ensuring performance and safety in a vast range of dynamic, high-temperature applications. But as dynamic as these applications are, so ...

Friday, May 14, 2021

Ransomware attack forces shutdown of largest fuel pipeline in the U.S.

Colonial Pipeline, the operator of the America’s largest fuel pipeline, fell victim to a cybersecurity attack on Friday 7 May that involved ransomware, forcing it to temporarily sh...

Friday, May 7, 2021

3 things that can help SA logistics firms rebound after the pandemic

Like so many other industries, the logistics services sector experienced mixed fortunes during the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the challenges, there is light at the end of the tunne...

Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Understanding South Africa’s Carbon Tax

Despite the economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 remained the hottest year on record globally, tied with 2016. It's clearer than ever that now is the time to ...

Monday, February 15, 2021

A day in the life of a commodity trader

Keeping the economy turning through sourcing essential resources. Behind every liter of diesel used to transport goods, is a team of commodity traders. Commodity traders source ref...

Thursday, February 4, 2021

The South African manufacturing sector adapts to Covid 19 challenges

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a disruptive force, changing how we work, live and play, seemingly overnight. While trends across sectors generally evolve over time; a ...

Thursday, December 17, 2020

E-commerce boom drives need for updated fleet maintenance programmes

Back in 2018, the industry was just coming to terms with the growth of e-commerce and its transformative effect on freight transportation, with particular emphasis on the final log...

Monday, December 7, 2020

Preventing Your Engine From Overheating

Say your driver is out on the road and notices something wrong—liquid is leaking from the engine area. The driver suspects a coolant leak, but how can he or she know for sure? It’s...

Thursday, December 3, 2020

Ten Things You Need To Know About Your Trucks’ Coolant

Coolant experts in the industry were surveyed about the most important things fleets should know when it comes to their coolant. Below is a brief guide to your trucks’ coolant, in ...

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

A Perspective into South Africa’s Fuel Supply Dynamics

For its more than fifty-five million people, South Africa’s transport sector is the live-wire underpinning economic and social development. Tied to the movement of goods, be it bul...

Monday, October 26, 2020

Risks of excluding routine oil analysis in your fleet PMP

Among our trucking customers, we are seeing more and more mixed fleets of older and newer trucks from different OEMs, and that presents a challenge from a preventive maintenance pe...

Friday, October 9, 2020

Accelerating South Africa’s transformation in the Mining sector

South Africa’s population is estimated at around 60 million people, equivalent to 0,76% of the global population. It is regarded, however, as the country with the highest rate of m...

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Future of customer relationships - Cris-atunity!

Future-Fit recently researched the impact of COVID-19 on commercial relationships and perceptions of the future ‘new normal’. Insights gained were distilled into seven lessons. In ...

Wednesday, September 16, 2020

Heavy Duty Motor Oil Trend toward Synthetic Oil

While the global lubricants market is estimated at a massive 46 billion litres, it has shown minimal volume movement over the past few years, mainly due to economic conditions. How...

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