Document 91q5yxQmzYMoe04Dqogzp2V55

CAM 762386 TO: V.1. R c Hc.nl on from: p . E . !' c r en be r n CC: Pc J , P.. A. P. J.-W. E. S. v"\ o r inirsg V.'olter Meod DATE: December 8, 1 ?i50 SUBJECT: Monthly Update Jc Vaplon/Er.cree B. McCaig/Libby I, Zonoliie Finished Products R c s p <= n d i n g to d G .11 > inquiries and providing techniccl service for this group of products continues to occupy o s.tgni.g.icani por tion cf my time. Current estimate (1981) is $303,000 through 31 December. This includes orders clready shipped arid those pending shipment in 1?81 for which credit approval has been given. Monokote accounts for approxirr,ate 1 y 6S>% of totai 7onoli.tr-; Export volume. in IvSi Monokote activity will show a significant in crease. V/e presently hold: confirmed purchase orders for 39,200 bogs ($250,300), verbal commit fluents and contractors approval for 72,500 bags ( $4 S1,500 ) , end have further active bids on projects to Lulling in 100,000 bags ($700,000). Of the knov/n potential sales of $1,432,000 vve should, barring a problem in the Middle East., have a Monokote volume of approximately $750,000 in 1731, This is ex clusive of potential sales to Grace South East Asia, which they have now budgeted at SOM bags. The Industrial Marine Coatings agreement has been completed and i now in effect. This agreement has established IMG as the Mcnokote distributor in the Middle East. The distributer price has been set at $6.60 per bag, vs list of $7.60 through l?8i. At present IMG reports having in excess of 65m nags of Monokote under contract for 1931. They have further offered to pay 311,000, 1/2 the cost, of the scheduled BS-467 1 test. All Monokote inquiries recard- ing fireproofing project: in the Middle East are now being for- warded tc IMC for follow-up. Monokote Fireproofing seminars' were given in Seoul, Korea and Hony Kong. Both seminars were attended by approximately 125 local architects, engineers, building code officials, college professors, and fireproofing applicators. Brian Lloyd reports the seminars have generated considerable interest toward the possibility of specifying Monokote in this region. Mr. Ky Lee of Grace Hong Kong is spending approximately 2 weeks in the USA learning about the Zonalilc line- of products. Applica te r .s i i pu r c r.a sc- . .on -j iv any 1 : a Manila ere schaouleci tu v i s: l Uom jcus one! r - pro jf i::r c-qua pm out in the n e x. i two weeks . Grace nu.o.,n a Kona hue. .old in advance for one half, $11,000, the cost of 03-476 . 151712A 4 DEC Q 1980 ikonchiy Update 762387 Two oppiicators. Roil and Thermal Insulations Ltd., from Trinidad and Tobago hove made x cpeaied inquiries regarding L'onokoie, its availability and application. Both companies have requested a formal, exclusive agreement and both seem to be ac tively pursuing the market. Thermal Insulations lias paid ken Nash's (W.W. Nash & Sons) expenses to Trinidad to help them to prepare a bid on the Barclays Bank. They have further requested that Grace hold a fireproofing seminar in Trinidad similar to cr.ot held in Hong Kong. No committment has yet been made. II. Concentrate Sales in Europe: Two major problems, shipping and asbestos, continue to prevent progress in this effort. Rick Carr, after nearly a month of nego tiation, was able to find one ship to Genoa (Vic Itciiiana, 1,000 tons) and one to Rotterdam (Distrisol, 380 tons). Both quotations were rejected by the customers. Shipping companies ere simply net interested in carrying small tonages (under 4,000 tons) of vermiculite. Large and profitable grain shipments dominate the market. We are now evaluating the possibility of using one or more dis tributors to coordinate small orders and address the asbestos issue on the local level, country by country. Discussions will be held with Keiri and Klochner in Germany arc* with Incermat SA in Belgium. Status of customers contacted is Cemi-France' price too high--cannot import "asbestos contaminated" verrniculite Distrisol-France requested clarification of asbestos problem then rejected offer - $50. belc-w SA price La Vermicu 1 ite-France - too much verrniculite in stock Kramer-Germony will only import "asbestos contaminated" verrniculite if Germany government says okay Zimmerman- Germany unknown Klein-Germany 2,000 tons of Grace verrniculite in stockinitial yield low--no dust control-requested help--on vacation until January 5 Dupre-UK cannot import "asbestos contaminated" verrniculite '.'o!-J.hlv Undote 1 762388 British Gypsum-UK has completed initial tesiing--favertible results--ncw wants prices CIF Vic I tdicinc-I tcly requested quote on 1,000 tons--then re jected our best offei----- now reports cnonae in purchasing policy Full-Netherlands unable to contaci--have material in slock for testing. III. Concentrate Sales -- Domestic Several South African customers have been requesting updated concentrate prices. It is not yet clear if this is due to a change in the South African supply end a price situation. U.S, Gypsum has indicated they will be purchasing some portion of their future needs from Virginia Vermiculite. Their major stated reason wes the desire for a second source. They also indicated, however, that our long lead times and the new box system offered by Virginia had influunced their decision. Ed Trewhella has obtained a quotation on the 3/4 ton box and pallet system used by V.A. Vermiculite at 13.78 each FOB Anderson, S.C. {very close to Enoree, making backhauiing a possibility). This translates to 18.37 per ton. It presently takes 25 man hours to load a truck (50 tons) in 100 lb bags. The box system should sig nificantly reduce this labor cost both in our mill and at the gypsum plant. We presently charge 19.50 per ton for bags on pallets. I have asked Gary Vaplon to review and report any cost savings which he feels may be realized with this system. IV. Plastic Filler Project: Initial evaluation was conducted to determine the effect of ver miculite particle size on finished product properties of Polypro pylene. Screen sizes of APS 20 micron through 113 micron, ground, salt water delaminated, product and pilot cell, 95% Libby #5 were compared ot loadings of 5, 25, 40 and 50%. Tests indicate that finished project properties are independent of vermiculite particle size 20 micron through L #5, (100% retained on 100 mesh, 147 micron screen). On these small scale runs it has not been possible to evaluate the effect of abrasive reck on the mixing and extruding equipment. Professor Driscoll reports the absolute strength values obtained to be consistent with talc type fillers. I have requested Dr. Driscoll to determine the exact type and price of talc that most closely parallels vermiculite performance. ti ? i ~>l t-. 762389 Driscoll will else cc; :inu; ic eveloci a filler in other plosiics with the goal of piece: .r.c! a p a p e r c \ plcstics industry meeting scheduled for Fasten in May 19.81. Ve r:: i t e : ii I Samples w\'en st oner s . of the K Hoffman #3 La double screened verxite were sent Roche an: Anitax indicated they could 'J't'haccept the new product. Ar.itox, however, has agreed to test f-% * V bags through their system for o full seal.e evaluation. c.1 1 not 2G0 fc-* Due to the High volume of Zonclite sales in Santa Ana, they heve just now been- cole to produce the L #2 tc be used in the Anitox .est. For the reasons detailed below, however, I believe this effort should be terminated. .p (peer focccs sAtufJ j>*. <r*. dC Ol 1. P/tft- /A SottTOk. Aa/A ST. AoutO . Kearney uses all the verxite screenings as concrete aggregate in the local area ct no cost penalty. There is, therefore, not economic advantage to a change to K #2 in Kearney, 2. With \ #4 St. Louis reports production of 80,000 bags of verxite which generated 104,600 bogs of cone aggregate of which ell but 7,374 bags ware used in their normal shipping area. (7,374 bogs shipped to Mew Orleans, San Anicnio, and Little Rock.) If.the 80,000 bags had been produced from L #3, they would have generated 5b,030 (4 cf) bags of Terra-Litc- #3. Consunpticn of Terra-Life in St. Louis (1900) was only 17,400 begs. This would hove necessitated the shipping, outside their plant area, of over 36,000 bags of Terra-Lite. A large cost rather than a sevings would be incurred. 3. St. Louis would have serious problems with Hoffman La Roche, one of their largest customers (20%)/ with any U2 product. 4. If we ship a Libby based product, we- will have to label and inform the customers of the Tremoiite problem and monitor, or cause the monitoring each, for compliance with OSHA standards. This would probably kill the business cn very short notice. JLl'T'r ~7t.iT yA*- A'*'*/ VI Drilling l.luds -- Mo work D**-v Peters Export: Soles through 1780 will be S291.3M vs budget of 225.1M. Cor Italian Di s c r i bo t or , Valcc, has orotiuced an Italian language Fetors mailer fur distribution to their customer: Vclco has ague an n:c . u sive distribution agreem* m e n t bs o d .t i r: r p.: i ,m or cars f or.d there is tentative cpiir :imaicly SCO!.! 15171247 :>n tii 1 y l!;.? dote -D- De ccm.be r ci, lS'tJ 762390 V/e conti.nue to receive substantial numbers of Peters inquizius from throughout the world. Expansion in the Peters export line shows significant opportunity. Our major problem is c lack of ability to investigate the quality of the inquiries received from potential overseas distributors. One half man year spent investi gating and establishing Peters iniornet ion cl distributor network would show dramatic sales results almost immediately. Margin on as few as 10 minimum initial orders ( J-'l 0,000GM) would more than cover the cost of the entire effort. / PEK/hak ^P. E. ICorenberg 151712AB