C H E M I C A L & ENGINEERING
NEWS VOLUME
40,
NUMBER
35
The Chemical W o r l d This Week
AUGUST 27, 1962
Coin-Op Dry Cleaners Boost Perchloroethylene This year's first-half output ran 59% above 1961's first half, but current high growth rate is not likely to continue In shopping centers, supermarkets, or just the empty store in the middle of the block, coin-operated dry cleaners are sprouting all over the country. And they are putting happy smiles on the faces of perchloroethylene producers. For 1962's first six months, perchloroethylene output was running 59% ahead of last year's pace—159 million pounds, compared to only 101 million pounds in 1961's like period. About 90% of perchloroethylene sales goes to dry cleaning. With virtually all of the coin-ops using perchloroethylene, they are receiving most—if
not all—of the credit for this year's fast pace. Most of perchloroethylene's other uses, aside from captive, are holding steady. These include metal degreasing and cold cleaning. 3 1 0 Million Pounds. Allowing for a typical July and August slowdown before sales start rolling again, total output this year should hit 310 million pounds. Not only is this a record; it far outstrips some "optimistic projections" made for 1965 output. Some crystal balls now have perchloroethylene output topping 330 million pounds this year, but most agree that's stretching coin-ops' effect too far.
Just how big is coin-operated dry cleaning? John L. Crouse, president of the National Automatic Laundry and Cleaning Council, calls it the "nation's fastest growing industry." First introduced in 1959, coin-ops received little national promotion until 1960. That year, unit sales were less than $1 million. The following year, however, 20,000 units rang up sales of $50 million and housewives poured $30 million worth of coins into 2400 establishments. This year, NALCC predicts, 55,000 machines will be sold—worth about $137 million. The number of centers
AUG.
2 7, 1 9 6 2
C&EN
21
will grow to 7300 and consumers will spend $120 million to dry-clean their clothes in them, says NALCC. Machine Makers. More than 25 companies make the machines, but 1*0 probably account for more than 80% of the business. Among the major producers: Norge Division of BorgWarner, Philco-Bendix Division of Ford, Econ-O-Crest, Glover Industries, Hammond Industries, Speed Queen, Tenex, Vamco, Westinghouse, and Whirlpool. Coin-ops are installed throughout the country, but they're concentrated in the South and in New York City. In New York, however, regulations that coin-op proponents call "outmoded" limit the number of machines that can be installed under one roof, make it impossible to install large, economical coin-op centers. Zoning changes now under study may relax the restriction. In California, coin-ops' progress has been called slow because they are regulated by the state's Dry Cleaning Board, whose seven members are commercial dry cleaners. At last count, says NALCC, there were only 95 establishments in the state. Many commercial dry cleaners look upon the coin-ops as competition. But others feel that they will complement the commercial houses rather than compete with them. They point out that the automatics will get housewives in the dry cleaning habit and actually increase commercial business. Many coin-op centers are owned by commercial dry cleaners. Realistically, perchloroethylene producers don't expect the production swell of 1962 to continue. They see it as coming from initial filling of newly installed machines. After installation, the machines will need only enough perchloroethylene to keep them filled. How big this market will be depends upon how efficient the solvent recovery systems prove to be. Other Solvents. Of course there will be new installations over the next several years, but how many is anybody's guess. Worth watching will be possible competition from other solvents, like Du Pont's Valclene. Valclene (l,l,2-trichloro-l,2,2-trifluoroethane) is claimed to be much safer and faster than perchloroethylene. But machines that use perchloroethylene (and almost all of them do) can't use Valclene. Only two manufacturers —Vic Mfg. and Ling-Temco-Vought— make units that take Valclene. 22
C & E N AUG. 2 7, 1962
Dow Is the Giant Among Eight Perchloroethylene Producers Capacity {millions of pounds per year)
Perchloroethylene Producers
DETREX CHEMICAL Ashtabula, Ohio
25
DIAMOND ALKALI Deer Park, Tex.
45
DOW CHEMICAL Freeport, Tex. Pittsburg, Calif. Plaquemine, La.
60 30 30
DU PONT Niagara Falls, N.Y.
55
FRONTIER CHEMICAL Wichita, Kan.
15
HOOKER CHEMICAL Tacoma, Wash.
10
PITTSBURGH PLATE GLASS Barberton, Ohio
35
STAUFFER CHEMICAL Louisville, Ky.
30 Total
335
Valclene's future, and the future of other solvents like it, seems to be in the hands of the equipment manufacturers. And, for the moment at least, they aren't committing themselves. The manufacturers apparently have three alternatives. They can pick up a license to make a Valclene unit from Vic, they can develop new units (for which Du Pont will give technical assistance), or they can make adapter kits for perchloroethylene equipment. Which road the manufacturers take will have a tremendous effect on the amount of perchloroethylene that goes into coin-ops. Aside from the coin-ops, perchloroethylene is making good headway in commercial dry cleaning establishments. It has been steadily whittling away at petroleum solvents' hold on the market until now it probably splits the dry cleaning field about evenly with them. Only a few years ago, perchloroethylene's share was only 3 5 % . There are several reasons for perchloroethylene's penetration. One, of course, is that it is less hazardous than petroleum solvents like Stoddard solvent. Although many large dry cleaning plants still use Stoddard solvent, the smaller units use perchloroethylene. And it's the smaller units that
are being built nowadays. The trend in dry cleaning is away from the large, central plant and toward the small neighborhood shop. Imports Up. While domestic production has been benefiting from the dry cleaning binge, imports, too, have been climbing. Foreign producers of heavy chemicals, with excess chlorine on hand, use it to make chlorinated solvents which they ship to the U.S. In 1960, perchloroethylene imports were 22 million pounds. Last year they jumped to 30 million pounds. This year, at the first-half mark, they were just shy of 19 million pounds. This means that 1962 imports should reach nearly 40 million pounds. Although domestic producers' concern over imports has eased somewhat because of their own good fortunes, they are still keeping a watchful eye on the overseas material. Imports have been grabbing a bigger slice of the supply pie for several years now. In 1957, perchloroethylene imports represented only 2.2% of total supply (imports plus domestic production). The figure grew to 11.5% last year. This year it will probably recede to 1 1 % , not because imports are slowing but because domestic production is flourishing. Only time can tell what will happen next year, when domestic output returns to normal growth. One view is that importers won't push for too big a piece of the business. If they do, they might trigger a price war, which they can do without as well as can the domestic producers. However, foreign supply may be a bigger factor. Capacity Up? At this year's expected production rate, perchloroethylene producers will be lapping fairly close to industry capacity. Yet no formal announcements of expansions have come along. The reason, says one observer, is that most perchloroethylene plants have a lot of built-in flexibility and a company can get much more than name-plate capacity out of the unit. One way is to ease up on production of other chlorinated hydrocarbons—like trichloroethylene—in favor of perchloroethylene. What's more, this same observer Sccys, several companies are quietly carrying out small expansions and improvements without formal announcements. In any event, the industry won't judge capacity needs by 1962. Instead producers see it as a welcome surge of business in an otherwise fairly steady growth.
