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Plastics Industry Protesting Feedstock Allocation Changes I POLYSAR PLASTICS HEAO: Gorf* Rl*gr, who hat baan w--id pratldant of Polytar Plastics. Inc., with office* P Stamford, Conn. New Minerals Policy To Avert Dependency 'irged by Sect. Morton A new national minerals policy that would reduce the dependency of the US on imported minerals and thwart a .possible cutoff of supplies by an inter national minerals cartel was urged last week by Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton. Speaking at s tuncbeen of the Illinois Chamber of Commerce in Chicago. Secre tary Morton warned that what has hap pened in the case of oil could have an influ ence upon nations which supply the bulk of non-fuel minerals moving in international commerce. The heart of the new poliev. he said. Continued on Page 49 Drew Chemical Sets An Expansion in Kearny Drew Chemical Corporation, Pars- ippany, N.J., producer of marine and industrial chemicals, has launched a $2 million, year-long expansion and modernization program at its Kearny, N.J., plant. The project is aimed at meeting demand m domestic customers, which is sharply leasing according to the company. Drew is a subsidiary of the United States Kilter Corporation. A spokesman states that the Kearny project is one phase of wide-ranging devel opment plans to be carried out over the next ten years. The program, he says, pri marily stresses improving the company's product development and increasing manu facturing efficiency. The Kearny modernization already under way, involves the 4.2 acTe site and plant bii!d:r,oc sin* Harrison Avenue in Continued on Page 22 Chemical Export Sales "5nejin2 Bells for Swiss With export bi;rnoss arecur.tinc for S2 iHweiit of total prmt otu:ri. :i;<* Swiss ciKin- " -'0 indiiviry is the :-v-<o,,t expert intensive m 'j.'- uui!d Tins is lb*- f:m.J!riyJ of the United '-:il',*ns agency. r<nc"ii*c Commission foi * , Geneva. 'Uh ''`nal rheirieal industry associa- -HI. b... -t-:t k '* :,t Zurich, however, say? that ' v\ponded at a lower rule in 5 Pi?/ iasl year's in- , :10 ifreent. against i. i ' - v n,u.. yeai. : t. exporting in' < r-w-nt of ` ! I. . |{. The proposed revisions in the man datory feedstock allocation regulations announced by the Federal Energy Of fice during the last two weeks have caused considerable confusion and anxiety in the petrochemical industry. Particularly upset by the proposed modifications is the Society of the Plastics Industry, which has said that the proposed changes could "place in serious jeopardy the important contri butions of the US plastics industry" to the national economy. SPI President Ralph L. Harding said last week that "the new revisions - once again interrupting established feedstock flows - would tend to aggravate already serious problems of production and employment within the industry." The changes proposed by PEO during the week of April 1 covered liquid petrole um feedstocks (including naphtha, benzene, toluene, xylene, hexane) and while not ex plicitly affecting the petrochemical indus try (in fact asserting that "no changes have been found necessary at this time in the part dealing with petrochemical feeds tocks") the changes introduced are felt within that industry to in effect reduce the supplies of these feedstocks they have available to them. Those changes broadened the definition of agricultural production to include fertil- Continued on Page 21 Coatings Are Going Dry Pollution- and health-oriented coat ings will displace large volumes of to day's coatings types between now and 1980, according to a study just released by Peter Sherwood Associates, Inc., chemical consultants in New York, working jointly with Richard A. Bieneman, a world authority on coatings. By 1980. latex coating consumption will rise to 300 million gallons, 30 per cent more than now, the authors say. Powder pollution-control coating types will soar to 235 million pounds a year from the current 43 million pounds. High-solid types will rise to 190 million gallons from 25 million in 1973, while water-soluble types will more than quad ruple, to 140 million gallons. Legislation now in effect or likely to be enacted will play a part in changing coatings trends. Its impact will he felt partly in the methods and safety precau tions employed in the manufacture and application of coatings and their raw materials. Its greatest effect, however, will be in changing the types of coatings which will be acceptable in various fields of application. The changes will differ according to application and raw material. For example, in high-solid, chemically-cured coatings, the Sberwood-Bieneman study sees the greatest growth by far, begin ning in 1976, in the area of high-perfor mance industrial finishes. This will be followed in terms of growth rate - but not total volume - by auto finishes. Thick surfacing and main tenance paint applications are next in line. In high-energy cured-high solids coat ings, the biggest upsurge is expected to be seen in finishing coil and sheet stock, but wood composite flat stock - today the leading application for this type of coating - promises to grow from about Continued on Page 28 Of un th. im in* tio thv pe. sus sht vet s Lit *ra- Cor; lyp: laU COIA out plat Corco Sets Expansion BASF Lilting US Capita! Of Penuelas Refinery; Aromatics Boost Also Commonwealth Oil Refining Company, in a joint announcement with Puerto Rico officials in San Juan, last week officially look the wraps off a $290 million expansion at Penuelas that will add 275.000 barrels a day to its crude oil refining capacity by 1976 and will boost Us aromatics potential there by about a third Corco at present has 161,000 barrels of daily refining capacity, and the additional 275.000 barrels will come in two Stages over a period of two end one-half years at a cost of $130 million. On top of this. Corco will spend another $70 million to enlarge its two existing arumanrs units as well as to add facilities to recover benzene from the nearby plants of Puerto Riro Olefins Company, ils fifty-tifu joint venture with PPG Industries, no., and of Union. Carbide Corporation Corco points out that these rnovor will give it another !)() million gallons of ao:rm! aromatics potential Its two exiting aro matics units currently have n c'-Ml-med an Contintird on Page 20 Amoco DfcST-PTA Plant Recovering From Da^aga To Double the $43MMS The BASF Group, based in Ludwigshafen, lion to $90 million a year in 1975 and beyond This is about double BASF's US outlays in lion), BASF Wyandotte Corporation, its 100 line lor a capacity build-up in dyestuffs, pigrr ten Pfizer's Roerig Offers lire ten Drug to Combat Nausea Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, a division of Pfizer; Jnc., has introduced "Emetecon". a new anti-emetic agent.lt will be Du's V. Ilk vision. Developed by Pfizer Research, it is a benzoquinolizine derivative, chemi cally unrelated to existing anti-emetic.; It is the first important anti-emetic since trie 1950's and will he u.sed for control of nausea and vomiting related to anesdn- sin and su-gcrv, Pfizer says. "Emcte-cori" reportedly fills n i'rn " t ing medical need, previously-tiMUM.' by anti-histamines and phciuwhui.'i _ Pflz-?r'* market research skin :'r ; that at ley."! two Million patient1 e ally are affected by severe rt l' ! - vomiting associated with ano'i-* surgery. __ ___ Anmco Chenit-vi ; Corporati-n ' ;u..nt at Decatur /-.la. (iamog/d t)V k-rr 1 i s on April is op-.r.Virig cl : houi r* : ;m.-o of capacity folio-i mg emergenev rrpn The plant yrc-t-rtly ha.-, r. c.nribii.r I r. k *! m ` ' ' yeichhold Sees m- BFG24189 kcrs, a*d included in the program for the first time feedstock supplies for synthetic natural gas. In addition, crude oil supplies directed toward the production of gasoline also seem to have been mandated increases. These new and expanded draws on limited feedstock supplies are felt by the pe trochemical industry to unreasonably restrict supplies that are finally avail able to them. > The proposed changes tn the propane al location program announced last week are thought to represent a similar violation of fair and established allocation procedures (See story on page 3). The new propane reg ulations failed to implement an expected in crease in the industry's allocation percen tage, included SNG allocations for the first time, and gave super-priority status to ag ricultural and Department of Defense needs. A spokesman for the FEO contacted last week said that the controversy need not be so hot and emphasized that the modifica tions are "proposed and are not yet law." FEO extended the period for receiving comments on the first group of changes one week, so that the deadline for comments on the liquid petroleum products and propane proposals is today, (April 15). ALLOCATION CATEGORIES SHIFT The Petrochemical Energy Group has submitted comments on both groups of changes. A spokesman for PEG said last week that the nub of the problem is that FEO seems to "be shifting the concept" of the allocation program. Instead of allocat ing all end-uses of a particular feedstock within a single category, the new regula tions seem to allocate feedstock by enduses contained in a number of different categories (so that toluene, for example, is now allocated in three distinct sections, each with different base periods and mar ket relationships). An example of how the plastics industry can be significantly affected by the pro posed changes, cited by both SPI and PEG, is the impact on hexane which is used in small but irreplaceable amounts as a sol vent in the production of polyethylene. The petrochemical industry receives no priority in solvent use, and suppliers have apparently informed industry that the agri cultural priority for fuel oils will leave vir tually no hexane for other uses. It will be burned. SPI complains that the burning of valua ble, highly refined feedstocks is a gross, waste and will adversely affect the broader economy as the effects proliferate. "Plastic materials, for instance," Mr. Harding says," cannot be separated from the feed production chain. POLITICAL MOTIVES SEEN However, if feedstocks such as benzene, toluene, xylene, hexane and naptha are al located to agricultural production at the level of 100 percent of current require ments, the result will be to reduce Vue plas tic industry's ability to provide packaging materials for the agricultural products " The feeling in the industry is that modifi cation proposals arc politically pv'ivatcd - to pacify unrest in agricuiiutd and to increase gasoline supplies and in sure no gasoline lines this Summer. One in dustry source called the allocation program a "big political football" and said the gov ernment is acting as if the oil crisis no long er existed. The thrust of the new proposals, source:* soy. is to divert rchneti feed mocks iu-m pc- Irochemsi ;.l to un.-fneient fuei use.' throuph now mandates for crude oh i nr'iuii;! no.-i by fertilizer. SNG and gasoline productior This is not only wasteful ana suspi ciously motivated, petrochermeut pi nole say, but in direct violation of the intent of L'ntttfress as expressed in the legislation ~u` thmiring the allocation program lust No v''*mber. 60c.-85c. per pound. Hansa yellows will rise by 30c. per pound to a new uf $3.00-34.10 per pound. Diarylide yellows will rise by G0-70c., for the most part, to a new range of $3.25-34.85 per pound. Chrome oranges will be increased by 6c. per pound to 60c. per pound. Molybdate or anges will rise by 7c. per pound to 79c. per pound. Cadmium oranges will rise by 15- 19c. per pound for Uthopones to $2.95-33.25 per pound, and by 30-52c. per pound for con centrates to 37.41-38.16 per pound. Chrome greens will rise by 9c. per pound to 78c.-80c. per pound. Cadmium reds will be increased b 80c.-l.30 per pound to a range of 38.74-10.9 per pound, for concentrates, and b 38c.-50c. per pound to a range of 33.72-34.7. per pound for Uthopones Lithol rubine is up 45c. to 32.75 per pouna. BON reds are up 10c. per pound to $2.85 per pound.; Toluidine toners are up 20c.-30c. per Ending April 12, 1974 ADVANCED Nona REDUCED None COMPARATIVE PRICE INDEXES Last Week 118.74 (100*1959 Average) Prev. Last April 13, Week Month ' 1973 118.74 1.10.74 *116.52 For Current Prices See Page 30. pound to $2.45-32.55 per pound. Naphthol reds are up 75c.-$1.50 per pound to $4.30-36.50 per pound. CADMIUM PIGMENTS- Glidden-Durk- ee increased prices, effective April 8, on concentrated cadmium pigments and litho- pone cadmium pigments. Concentrated yel lows remain at $5.48 per pound, oranges new range from $5.4S-$8.07 per pound, and reds now range from $8.93-311.61 per pound. Lithopone reds now range from 33.59-35.04 per pound, and lithopone yellows range from $2.29-33.31 per pound. Prices are for t.l. lots, are lc. per pound higher west of the Kockies. LITHARGE- Eagle-Picher Industries increased litharge prices, effective April 1, to 26*Ac. per pound in truckload quantities. As reported here last week, Hammond Lead Products raised prices to 25'4c. per pound on March 27. MOLYBDENUM WHITE- Sherwir. Wil liams increased prices on April 8 on its "Moly-white 101" by 3c. per pound. The new price for t.l. quantities is 8-lc. per pound. RED LEAD- Eagle Richer increased red lead (97prices on April 1 to 27,;o. per pound in truckloads. Hammond raised prices to 27Vfic. per pound c.n March ZINC SULFATE - Shcrwin Will;.in.'- in creased its refined grade 7ine sulfate by 2c. per pound to a new- price ot 22,2f. per pound, effective April is ZINC OXIDE- Siicrwm William', ('hem ic;,' . l.-crrcrc'1 r>r*ri"; !.',? Ue.-K {>'! j t S An crlca.t process '/! /in-- ..-\con sistent with action 1>\ ith*,rv in t!u xn-lus?ry earlier this month Effective April h. SW in creased prices by ri'jc. per pound, plac ing the new price a. . per nouns! m truck load i (11 i fi ? i I c S. MISCELLANEOUS MUC\~ 1 A nri! J?. <,:..ifi, ,)- IVi'ki i' All! iiiircaM' (he pnte of ad prudes .,( it- Silrrnn" > \ u'tu tic (me par tieb- silica t> e u vv t aupe o! Me -7`ie per ; min;. FLASTtCtP'ZRS W.'.'Wt PIGMENTS I'of.YK.YTMfi PI \S, J< IaJ.;{S- Rohm tiiul ila.is t;. men top pnee:. p.;}i;v ,\nrlj 1'. nit a!! qiiar.titii-v of it-; "Mon, Profitable bull movements t< any port on th Eurochem Shipping. We're the shipping company that knows your products to your customers with the And we're helping companies on both sic bulk chemicals to more ports in our ope ocean carrier. Profitable exports--On time delivery wher Eurochem tankers speed your bulk chem with frequent scheduled sailings. 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