Document R2y5Z7Bjgx22qyxpDR4NRDGnz
From Monsanto Che ical Company
At Texas City, Texas
( * r! t! cif?kner
Date September 15, 1958
To Mr. G. T. Ryan At Texas City
Reference Subject VCM QUALITY PROBLEMS
In accordance with your request today, this will summarize past VCM quality problems as we know them to date.
PANTASOTE COMPANY
Pantasote received one yellowed car of VCM in
December, 1957, and four in May, 1958- We are now out as a supplier at Pantasote because of this problem. Between the bad car in December
and the four bad ones in May, we shipped Pantasote seventeen good cars. Cost of return
ing one entire bad car and part of another to Texas City was about $3,000. Sale of two cars at a discount price cost us about $1,000 in
lost profit. Pantasote had complained several times of sediment in our VCM.
.*<JLmjul Pvfi
FIRESTONE
We shipped'Firestone one yellow VCM tank car in
December, 1957* We are now out as a supplier at Firestone, but for other reasons. Cost for re turning the car to Texas City was about $2,500.
GREAT AMERICAN PLASTICS COMPANY
In August, 1958, Great American advised of water in a tank car of VCM. We still continue to supply them.
Great American has also complained of unexplained trouble in polymerization of VCM, but this problem
is not limited only to our VCM.
SOLVAY PROCESS DIVISION OF ALLIED CHEMICAL CORP.
Solvay rejected five tank cars of VCM shipped by us
)
to them on September 2, 1958, because of rust and dirt
particles In all cars and flocculated polymer particles
in three cars. Extra freight for sending the material
to Springfield amounts to almost $5,000 extra over the
cost for sending directly from Texas City to Springfield
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SPRINGFIELD
Springfield has checked color of incoming cars for us
from time to time since May, 1958. It appears that
the color problem is under control; however, five cars received at Springfield in August were said to contain
CD IN 10
CBY 1111874
RSV0031134
(
Mr. G. T. Ryan
2 September 15, 1958
considerable sludge, part of which was found to be
polymer. They have also found water in some recent
cars of VCM. It is unknown how much the use of
off-spec material has cost the Springfield FVC >
Production Department.
J
The above cost to Monsanto for extra freight and sale of two
off-spec cars at a discount is roughly $11 - 12 M. These are
direct results of quality problems. An additional loss in sales t^cs to Solvay and Pantasote to date as a direct result of quality Is J
estimated to be about 20 cars of VCM. The loss will continue at a rate of up to 6 cars per month if we cannot regain the confidence of these customers. The Immediate danger of losing additional customers must also be recognized. The net profit to Monsanto on sale of each Incremental car of VCM will average at least $2,500/car. The mounting total of lost profits Is obvious.
DMB:rf
D. M. Brown
CBY 1111875
RSV0031135
J. S.' Putnam
A. R. Baker
V, F. Zlmmermann
September 15, 1958*% 1
E. Withrow
J. G. McQuarrie/
W. T. Anderson
C. F. Trombley
TO: Mr. J. V. Waggoner
A. T. Goodacre
AT: Texas City
SUBJ:
SOLVAY PROCESS DIVISION ALLIED. CHEMICAL CORPORATION
Perkins Plant Moundsvllle, West Virginia
This is in regard to the following cars of Vinyl Chloride Monomer which the subject company rejected on their arrival at their Perkins plant due to suspended particles and sediment and high acetylene content:
GATX 37819 37823 37805 76243
SHPX 5121
Rejection of the above five cars will cost Monsanto almost $5,000 out-ofpocket for forwarding to our Springfield plant. Our cost for getting the five cars to Solvays Moundsville plant was exactly the cost for shipping cars directly from Texas City to Springfield.
On September 12, I called Mr. John Budinscak, Chief Chemist at Solvay's Moundsville plant to inquire about the details of the complaint which they had made to us from their New York office. The five cars were claimed to have 3.4 to 4.2 ppm acetylene. Our analysis of the cars before leaving showed them to have from less than 1 to 1 ppm acetylene. Solvay employs a titration type of analytical method, whereas we have a spetrophotometrie method. Solvay Is sending a copy of their .method to my attention.
All of the cars were said to have sediment which was mostly of a reddish color but which included black particles. The following three cars were said to have, in addition to the darker particles, a white flocculated material which was detected even when sampling fronifche dip tube on the cars at various heights:
GATX 37819 37805 76243
In the opinion of the laboratory people at Solvay*s plant, the white material was polymer. They claimed it was definitely not water. The cars all contained about 150 ppm water, according to their analysis.
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