Alcolac Diversifies into Specialty Monomers Alcolac Chemical Corp. is diversifying into specialty monomers as well as other products. The company's present product line consists chiefly of surfactants—a large portion of which are used in emulsion polymerization. So specialty monomers will fit conveniently into Alcolac's marketing program. The company has two main technical service groups for its customers—one for surfactants for emulsion polymerization, the other for the cosmetics industry. First of the new specialty monomers is dimethyl maleate, which Alcolac already has on the market. It is used in vinyl acetate formulations to raise the blocking temperature—a measurement used in the coatings trade to indicate conditions under which a stack of coated blocks will stick together. Dimethyl maleate will also improve polyvinyl acetate-acrylate paint latexes to give them properties similar to acrylates but at a lower cost. Alcolac will also make glycol dimethacrylates, hydroxy alkyl methacrylates, amino ethyl methacrylates, and other monomers. A small company, with just over $3.0 million in sales last year, Alcolac feels there is a place for its products. "At one end of the monomer business," says Carl Pacifico, vice president and general manager, "you have the giant companies turning out millions of pounds per year of a special monomer for say 50 cents a pound. Then you have companies like the specialty organic companies which turn out compounds in small quantities at $4.00 per
Alcolac's Carl Pacifico Counts on internal growth
pound. We feel there is a gap between these two, and a place for a company which turns out something on the order of 50,000 pounds per year of monomer in the 75-cent range." Dibutyl maleate is already manufactured in tonnage quantities in the U.S. Alcolac won't go into this business. But it will make diallyl maleate, or if a customer wants one, specialties such as maleates with one alkyl and one ethoxylate chain. Alcolac has not been neglecting its older line of surfactants. During 1963 the company added a new material for shampoos, under the trade name of Druid. Fiscal 1963 is the first year that Alcolac Chemical has published a financial report. Prior to November 1962 the company was privately held by the president, Vsevolod Blinoff. At that time the company went public with the offer of 50,000 shares of common stock at $5.00 per share. There are now 112,250 shares of common stock and 339,900 shares of class B common outstanding. Net income for fiscal 1963 was $191,357. Early this year Alcolac picked up a majority interest in Guard Chemical Co., Ossining, N.Y. Guard makes fungicides, mercurials, pharmaceutical intermediates, and quaternary ammonium compounds. Just last month Alcolac acquired complete ownership. Guard, too, has a new development it considers important. It offers powdered organic mercury salts with up to 50% solubility in water, compared with the usual 1%. Although Alcolac will continue to look at new candidates for acquisition, the company counts on its internal resources for most of its future growth. "We have 25 people, 30% of our employees, in research. Of these, 10 are professional. In addition, our salesmen are all technically trained— the sales manager has a Ph.D. and we have technical people in production, engineering, and commercial development/' says Mr. Pacifico. The company has just broken ground for a new research laboratory in Baltimore. "We intend to grow, but we don't plan to compete with the large companies. Our products complement theirs. There is an optimum size for a project for us, and we make a careful study to determine what it is. We think we have been pretty successful. Over 50% of our research projects have been carried through to a marketable product," Mr. Pacifico says.
Kaiser Fails in Try To Hike Aluminum Price Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical failed in its attempt to raise the price of aluminum ingot earlier this month. After one of the three major aluminum producers, Aluminum Co. of America, failed to go along with the increase, Kaiser rescinded the boost. Kaiser's move would have raised the base price of its primary aluminum ingot from 23 to 24 cents per pound. The price of other related ingot products, including extrusion and foundry ingot, would also have gone up 1 cent a pound. The price of soft alloy extrusions would have been raised 1.5 cents per pound. In announcing the price increase, Kaiser president T. J. Ready, Jr., said: "Earnings reports this year by the industry, both here and abroad, have amply demonstrated the inadequate margins that exist between costs and prices." He added: "We believe the 24-cent level represents a realistic ingot price in relation to a more adequate return on investment." Just one day after Kaiser's price increase, Alcoa said it would not go along with the move at this time. Alcoa gives two reasons for its refusal. First, the company says, the present world supply of metal is too abundant to make such an increase realistic. (World production of aluminum was 5.5 million short tons in 1962 and may come close to 5.8 million short tons this year.) Second, Alcoa says, "Until prices of aluminum fabricated products attain a more adequate costprice relationship, we regard an increase in the 23 cent-a-pound price of ingot as an action which would not be in the best interests of the aluminum industry." While Kaiser's move to boost ingot prices failed, an earlier move by Reynolds Metals Co. succeeded in raising the price of ingot by 1 / 2 cent per pound in October. For the immediate future, the price of ingot is expected to hold. It seems unlikely that any new attempt could be more successful than Kaiser's. However, prices of fabricated products have increased generally by about 3 1 / 2 cents per pound this year. In the past, such increases in prices of fabricated products have been followed by an increase in the price of ingot. With continued strength in the price of fabricated products, a price increase for ingot is probably inevitable. DEC.
16,
1963
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