Document mp8GDOKk6zGL3VQdx0xMDYoOQ

"T ~* r r Top of the news Sellers' market in 70s Continued tight supplies and higher prices of chemical raw materials are in the cards for the rest of the '70s, accord ing to speakers at the annual midwinter conference of the National Assn, of Pur chasing Management's Chemical Group in Philadelphia last week. But one pur chasing executive sees prices leveling off in oil and declining in naphtha. The price of foreign crude oil, which has soared to S9.50/bbl. this year, will edge up to S 10.70/bbl. by '77 and to $12 by 'SO, said John Haaga, supply and mar ket area manager of Union Carbide's chemicals division. Naphtha tags which were 520/ton in '70 and skyrocketed to S155 this year, will decline to $120 in '77--although they will be S 135/ton in '80, he added. Ethylene from the U.S. Gulf Coast, ac cording to Haaga, sold at 3c/lb. in '70 (vs. 3.25c in Europe), rose to 5-7e this year (vs. 12-15c) and will increase to 12-14 in '77 (vs. 14-16C) and 13-15C in '80 (vs. 1517c). Propylene is 4-6c/lb. now (vs. 1012c in Europe) will be 9-11C in '77 (vs. 12-14C) and 10-12C in'80(vs. 13-15C). Benzene Crunch: Benzene will become increasingly tight because of the crude oil shortage, change in the aromatic content of crude and changes in the refinery product mix, predicted Merrill Seggerman, manager of Shell Chemical's olefins and aromatics business center. Benzene output, he said, will rise to 1.71 billion gal. in '83 from 1.07 billion in '73, while demand will grow to 2.54 billion gal. from 2.45 billion last year. Toluene pro duction will rise to 2.03 billion gal. in '83 STAUFFER'S COLEMAN: Shortages spur barter, tolling, multipnce purchasing. from 795 million in '73, while demand is slated to climb to 1.47 billion from 795 million. The shortages are triggering dramatic changes in chemical firms' purchasing methods, according to Gleason Coleman, Stauffer Chemical vice-president, pur chasing. The situation has created the need for a corporate "barter agent" and made tolling arrangements and a retreat from central purchasing more desirable, he added. Companies, Coleman said, also have found it necessary to pay two or even three different prices to assure more than one source of supply. Opening safety package The Transportation Dept. (DOT) is considering major changes in hazardous materials shipping rules that would add more than 300 new items to the list of re stricted materials (including some chem icals) requiring special handling. And it would remove exemptions of certain commodities from packaging regulations. The proposed revisions, which are open for public comment and are not fi nal, also would require uniform labeling of restricted materials. In addition, DOT would set up a number-coded informa tion manual to outline methods and procedures for handling hazardous mate rials in the event of an accident or spil lage. Numbers on shipping labels would correspond to those in the manual. The new rules would consolidate the now widely dispersed federal hazardous materials regulations into a single code. The regulations would conform substan tially to those of bodies such as the Inter national Air Transport Assn., the Inter governmental Maritime Consultative Organization, and the United Nations. A Union Carbide spokesman says the labeling code is "confusing and mean ingless" to those without the manual. Dow views the rules as causing "no sig nificant increase" in its costs. Even as DOT mulled the revised regu lations, two rail mishaps earlier this month involving chemical freight focused further attention on shipping safety. In one incident, five Delaware & Hudson freight cars carrying liquid propane blew up after they derailed at Oneonta, N.Y., injuring 54 persons, most of them fire men. An earlier accident near Troy, 111., involved a Penn Central tank car carrying phenol, which exploded, setting fire to two other cars loaded with combustible and agricultural chemicals, and forcing evacuation of area residents. No injuries were reported. New Impetus for probe Last week's discovery that two mere former employees of B. F. Goodrich's !'( Louisville, Ky., polyvinyl chloride (PYCl r: plant were afflicted with angiosarcoma of z the liver has added new urgency to the f. probes into the possible carcinogenicitv : of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM). v` One of the newly uncovered cases was < a worker who died in '64. He had been r employed in the production of VCM. an | operation that has since been discon- jr tinued at the Louisville plant. The other case, revealed by the chief medical advi- ; sor to the Kentucky Dept, of Labor, in- volves a man who still is alive but hospi- ri talized. He had worked 12 years in PVC f production. This brings the total number j: of Goodrich employees believed stricken F by the rare liver cancer to six. j) And last week Union Carbide said its records showed a former employee at its 1 South Charleston, W. Va., PVC plant- who died in '68, had angiosarcoma. f Reacting to the widened scope of the t Goodrich problem, the Kentucky Safer.' > and Health Standards Board reported last ` week that it has added VCM to the list cf 14 restricted industrial carcinogens issued last month by the Labor Dept.'s Occupa- ' tional Safety and Health Administration ' (OSHA). Under the new state regu lations, manufacturers using VCM in 1 Kentucky will have to register with the j state by July 1. In addition, the Kentucky j regulations lower the employee VCM ex- ! posure level from the federal standard of ! 500 parts/million to 75 ppm., with a j time-weighted average of 50. Goodrich says its Louisville plant is operaring within the standards. Meanwhile, on the federal level an OSHA spokesman asserts: "We're not 1 against issuing temporary emergency standards, but in this instance there seems to be a great lack of solid scientific data on the chemical. We also have to eval uate the economic impact of such a rul ing, and in this case the economic impact would be huge." Other Probes: Several parties currently are conducting investigations into the possible danger of exposure to VCM Among them: the National Institute c: Occupational Safety and Health, which -3 probing health conditions at eight PVC plants; the Manufacturing Chemists Assn.; and VCM and PVC producers, in cluding Goodrich. As a precaution, the Consumer Product Safety Commission also is conducting a probe of anv dancers from daily exposure to products made from VCg.^gC^ 001 1 14 CHEMICAL WEEK February 27, 1974 T