Monsanto to sell last of European fibers units Monsanto's announcement last week that it has agreed in principle to sell its European acrylic fibers operations to Montefibre SpA, a subsidiary of Montedison, portends the exit of the St. Louis-based company from all fiber operations in Europe. The acrylic fibers business is the last of Monsanto's European fibers operations, the company having closed its nylon operations there in 1978. Under the agreement with Montefibre, Monsanto also will acquire the Italian company's share of Polyamide Intermediates Ltd., a joint venture of the two companies in the U.K. PIL produces nylon raw materials. This is the latest move in Monsanto's long-running shakeout in European operations. Besides shutting down its nylon operations, the company also has sold its polystyrene
business and has gotten rid of its 67% interest in Aiscondel S.A., a Spanish chemicals and plastics company. For the latest move, Monsanto has established a loss provision that will come out of 1982 earnings. The loss amounts to $18 million, after taxes, or 46 cents a share. This reduces earnings for the company to $352 million from the previously reported $370 million. Monsanto employs about 950 people in its European acrylic fibers business. The company has acrylic fibers plants at Coleraine, Northern Ireland (104 million lb of annual capacity), and Lingen, West Germany (77 million lb per year of capacity). In addition, Monsanto has a textile technical center at Leicester, U.K., arid marketing staff located in various European cities and at Monsanto's Europe-Africa headquarters in Brussels. Monsanto says that personnel probably will be reduced at the locations involved. •
Canadian government to aid petrochemical firms After months of soul-searching, the Canadian federal government has come up with a financial aid package for two financially strapped eastern Canadian petrochemical companies. Although welcome, the aid falls far short of what the firms sought (C&EN, March 7, page 7). The government has offered Petromont Ltd. (Montreal, Que.) and Petrosar (Sarnia, Ont.) $25 million each in loans or loan guarantees over the next two years. In each case, however, the aid is contingent on the provinces' coming up with matching funds. Quebec already has indicated that it is ready to match the federal government aid for Petromont. There has been no word yet from the Ontario provincial government, but informed sources believe that it, too, will match the government's $25 million for Petrosar. For Petromont, the aid will come, as the government phrases it, "in the form of a repayable contribution." In other words, a loan. Terms of the loan haven't been worked out yet, according to a Petromont
spokesman. For Petrosar, the federal government is offering loan guarantees. No doubt the difference in terms reflects the fact that Petromont is in far worse financial shape than is Petrosar. Petromont had contemplated closing its core petrochemical operations in the Montreal area. The two companies, along with several other companies in the oilbased petrochemical industry of eastern Canada, did not get what they really were seeking. They had petitioned Ottawa for breaks on "upfront" taxes (such as the petroleum compensation charge and the Canadian ownership special charge) for oil that was upgraded into petrochemicals. They also wanted a pricing policy on other petrochemical feedstocks, such as liquefied petroleum gases, that would put them on a competitive par with western, gas-based petrochemical producers. Nevertheless, a government-industry task force is being established to study long-term policies for the Canadian petrochemical industry. Its report is due by year's end. D
Cotton plants grown from tissue culture Cotton has joined the growing list of commercial crop plants that scientists can manipulate to regenerate adult plants from undifferentiated tissue. The ability to do so is a step toward using genetic engineering techniques to produce improved cotton strains. Researchers at Phytogen, a Pasadena, Calif., genetic engineering firm, grew adult plants from tissue samples from three commercial strains of cotton. According to David Anderson, Phytogen vice president of research, the methods for regenerating plants from tissue are becoming well known. The trick is to find the right tissue at the right stage of development, then to culture it on a medium that contains the right combination of salts and plant hormones to promote growth. Details for cotton are proprietary, and a patent is being sought. The research was performed under a contract from J. G. Boswell Co., a California farming firm. Cotton is expected to exhibit somaclonal variation, Anderson says. With other plants that have been cultured, he explains, including alfalfa, wheat, corn, and potatoes, the resulting plants possess a variety of characteristics differing from those of the original plant. These plants can be screened for desirable traits such as disease resistance. Such screening is set for cotton. The embryonic plants develop from small, cultured clumps of dividing cells called calli. The next step in the research effort is to make a suspension of individual cells from a callus, culture that suspension, and regenerate adult plants from individual cells. That has proved difficult for other plant species. At present, genetic engineering must be performed on single cells, Anderson says. Phytogen researchers, for instance, are seeking to introduce a gene for herbicide resistance from other species into cotton. However, they also are working on two techniques that would allow the genes to be introduced directly into the cotton callus. Details of that research also are proprietary. D March 14, 1983 C&EN
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