Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. At this time, we will be conducting a question-and-answer session. (Operator instructions) Our first question today comes from the line of Ivan Marcus with Keybanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.
Ivan Marcus – Keybanc Capital Markets
Hi, thanks for taking my call. Real quick, I think I missed it. Volume was up 6%, what was FX and price in the additives business?
David A. Fiorenza
For the quarter?
Ivan Marcus – Keybanc Capital Markets
Yes, for the quarter.
David A. Fiorenza
12% was shipment, 3% was FX, 9% was pricing.
Ivan Marcus – Keybanc Capital Markets
Got you, thank you. And then so you said that you’re seeing volume fall off in the fourth quarter. Are you seeing it more in your international business, or in North America, or is it pretty equal? Can you give a little bit more color on where you’re seeing that volume come up?
Thomas E. Gottwald
Yes, this is Teddy. It’s not isolated to any one place. We’re seeing it in North America, we’re seeing it in Asia. Those two markets probably more than other places. We expect this quarter to be lighter on volume, as David mentioned. We think that this will be a near-term kind of phenomenon and we don’t expect any longer term issue on volume. I will also say that there’s a silver lining in the light of volume for us because our plants have been running flat out, and we have some maintenance and expansion tie-in’s coming in a couple of our plants in the fourth quarter and early in the first quarter of next year. So a little relief on the volume side is not a bad thing for us.
Ivan Marcus – Keybanc Capital Markets
Great. Teddy, you’ve been in the business for awhile. How has your business lube additives happen simply perform in a recession, the past recessions, and how has, if we are in a recession now, how is now different than in the past couple that we’ve gone through for Afton?
Thomas E. Gottwald
Those are really good questions. Historically, the additive business has been less dependent on the economy than most other industries. I think that’s still true today. There’s pushes and pulls on both sides of that equation. Currently, in a slow-down, people don’t buy new cars as much and the new car factory fill market is important to us, but it’s a small portion of our total and we’re seeing some weakness there throughout this year. So that’s a negative. And people will delay changing their oil a bit, stretch it out some, but after awhile you can’t delay changing your oil. Gas prices being high has impacted demand somewhat, but as you know, gasoline prices are coming back down and I suspect that people will return to their normal driving habits. So there’s pushes and pulls, but all things considered, I think our industry is less dependent than most on economic conditions. And, at this point, I don’t really expect the current situation that we’re in to be any different from gasoline from a demand standpoint.
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