Catalysts Spark Engelhard's Growth Sales should reach a record $157 million, earnings a record $4.4 million this year Industry's growing demand for refining and recycle catalysts, and a high level of metal reclaiming operations are boosting Engelhard Industries' sales and earnings. In 1962, Engelhard halted a twoyear profit decline. Its sales rose 7% to a new $144.9 million peak. Earnings rebounded from $2.8 million in 1961 ($1.40 a share) to $3.7 million ($1.83 a share) in 1962. In the first quarter of 1963, sales totaled $39.1 million, up 7% from the same quarter of 1962. The company's earnings gain was more impressive, from $812,364 to $1.3 million. Engelhard expects sales to reach about $157 million and earnings to rise to $4.4 million in 1963. Engelhard, Newark, N.J., is one of the world's leading manufacturers of products made from platinum and other precious metals. It sells its output to about 17,000 customers in the chemical, electrical-electronic, petroleum, transportation, communications, and other industries. Precious Metals. As a producer of precious metals, Engelhard is part of the primary nonferrous metals industry. In the last five years, it has outperformed this industry in sales and earnings growth. Engelhard's sales have risen 3.6% a year during the last five years compared with the industry's average of 1.2% per year. Even more striking, the company's net income rose 6.8% per year while that of the industry dropped 5.2% per year. On the other hand, Engelhard's profit margins and operating income are at a much lower level than the industry's. For example, the company's profit margin in 1962 was 2.6% compared with 5.5% for the whole industry. In the same year its operating income (profit before taxes plus depreciation) was 6.2% of sales com-
HOT SILVER. Molten silver at 2200° F. pours from gasfired furnace at Engelhard's Newark, N.J., plant. Engelhard has 25 to 3 0 % of the U.S. market for industrial silver
pared to 13.3% for the whole industry. Engelhard became a publicly owned company in March 1960. At that time, the company took over the precious metals business and other manufacturing activities from its parent, now known as Engelhard Hanovia, Inc. Engelhard Hanovia, a holding company of the Engelhard family, controls more than 72% of Engelhard Industries' common stock. Growing Demand. Increased industrial demand for gold, silver, and the platinum metals (platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, osmium, and iridium) has been an important factor in Engelhard's rising sales curve. During 1962, for example, about 840,000 ounces of the platinum group metals were used by U.S. industries. This is a 2% increase over 1961. More than half of this amount was supplied by Engelhard. U.S. industrial use of silver totaled about 100 million ounces last year. Engelhard estimates that it supplied 25 to 30% of this market. The petroleum, chemical, synthetic fiber, and pharmaceutical industries
are the biggest customers of Engelhard's platinum products. Platinum is being used more widely as a catalyst by the drug and chemical industries, in particular. But the use of precious metals is also growing in other industries. In the automotive field, for example, one manufacturer has standardized platinum alloy contacts for the voltage regulators in most of its 1963 car models. Another is considering platinum-tipped spark plugs as standard equipment for its passenger cars and trucks. Although more expensive, the plugs last four to five times as long as the traditional type, the company says. Engelhard also makes iridium wire, which shows promise in spark plug tips. Iridium-tipped spark plugs are being introduced in airplanes, automobiles, and trucks. Engelhard foresees increased use of this metal in the aviation and automotive fields. Because platinum catalysts eventually are poisoned and must be cleaned, Engelhard has also become a major refiner of the precious metal. Last year, Engelhard's volume of reJUNE
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finery production and recovery was 25% greater than in 1961, a new high. No Mines. Engelhard operates no mines. All of its metal needs are purchased from outside suppliers—one of the principal ones being International Nickel Co. Its domestic operations are carried out through 13 divisions. Newest is the Magna division, formed from Magna Mfg. Co., which Engelhard acquired for $1.3 million last year. Magna makes aluminum, copper, and brass powders at its Haskell, N.J., plant. Engelhard estimates that specialized mill and fabricated products accounted for 34% of its 1962 sales; electrical components for 17%; catalysts and chemicals 10 %; products for jewelry manufacture 79c; plating compounds and solutions 7%; miscellaneous silver products 4%; dental supplies 29c; fused silica and quartz products 39c; other products and services 5r/c; and metal sales 119k. Overseas activities accounted for about 189c of Engelhard's sales volume last year. The company has Zurich, Melbourne and Thomastown, plants in London, Toronto, Rome, Australia, and Bogota, Colombia. In addition, Engelhard owns a 409c interest in Kali-Chemie, a West German company that makes catalysts. It is now negotiating with Japan's Sumi-
SILVER AND STEEL A Four-hi mill winds a thermostatic bimetal, silver and steel, in continuous strips at Engelhard's H. A. Wilson division plant in Union, N.J. Specialized mill and fabricated products accounted for 3 4 % of Engelhard's 1962 sales
tomo Co., to form a new company in Japan. New Department. Last year, Engelhard set up a separate product development department to increase its precious metals business and to diversify into nonprecious metals fields. The new department works with all .13 of Engelhard's divisions. It now
Engelhard's Sales Now Show a Steady Upswing
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has a program under way to find new uses for the divisions' existing products. For example, it is working with the Hanovia liquid gold division, which makes solutions for decorating ceramics, glassware, and china. Attempts are being made to widen the application of liquid gold into more technical areas, such as printed circuitry. The product development department also looks into the acquisition of patents—especially those pertaining to new products in the metals and electronics fields—and the acquisition of companies. It played a key role in Engelhard's acquisition of Magna last year, for example. Research. Engelhard's research and development expenditures have grown from $630,000 (0.6% of sales) in 1955 to $2.1 million (1.4% of sales) last year. More than 250 of the company's 4300 employees are involved in research and development. Most of Engelhard's research is connected with the platinum metals. Research is largely chemical and metallurgical. Chemical research is the most important. It accounts for almost two-thirds of the company's total research expenditures. About 50% of Engelhard's chemical research is on catalysts. Engelhard chemists are developing new types of catalysts and studying the;; applications in the petroleum and -jry\eral chemical fields.
BRIEFS Heyden Newport's board of directors has approved Tennessee Gas Transmission's proposal to acquire all the assets of Heyden Newport (C&EN, June "10, page 21). The deal still must be approved by stockholders.
The National Agricultural Chemicals Association, the Chemical Specialties Manufacturers Association, the Manufacturing Chemists' Association, the National Plant Food Institute, and the Animal Health Institute have formed a special inter-association committee. The committee members consist of the chief executive officer of each association. The committee was formed to study, evaluate, and coordinate the chemical industry's activities in all use-phases of pesticides. It will act as a liaison group between the chemical industry, Congressional committees, and government agencies studying the use of pesticides. Parke C. Brinkley, president of NACA, is chairman of the group.
Olin Mathieson, Detrex Chemical Industries, and Houdry Process and Chemical Co. received the Lammot du Pont Safety Awards for 1963 for outstanding safety improvement in the chemical industry. The awards were presented during the Manufacturing Chemists' Association's annual meeting in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. They are presented annually to those companies which show the greatest percentage reduction in their frequency rates of disabling injuries. The reduction is based on the average rate of the past two years compared with the average rate of the immediately preceding three years. Olin won the award in the large-company category. It had a 46% reduction in its injury frequency rate—from 3.860 disabling injuries per 1 million man-hours worked for 1958-60 to 2.084 for 1961-62. Detrex and Houdry showed a 100% reduction during the same years to tie for the smaller-company awards. Detrex's rate went from 6.0 to 0 and Houdry's went from 10.7 to 0.
Pennsalt Chemicals has increased its quarterly dividend from 15 cents to 20 cents a share. It is payable Aug. 1 to shareholders of record July 15.
Pittsburgh Maps Plan for Research Center Dr. Edward H. Litchfield (left), University of Pittsburgh chancellor and chairman of the Oakland Corp., and Fred Smith, president of OakCorp, show a model of the $250 million Panther Hollow research park to be built in Pittsburgh by OakCorp. The center will be built in what is now a barren ravine separating Carnegie Institute of Technology from the University of Pittsburgh. The ravine is 900 feet wide and 150 feet deep. Max Abramovitz, architect for the center, designed it with a landscaped " r o o f " that will span the ravine and traverse its length. Offices, labs, roads, parking areas, utility substations, and restaurants will be located in the center's seven levels. Sunken courtyards and terraced sides will provide sunlight and ventilation. The development, which is scheduled for completion in 1970, will create about 75 acres of park land out of what is now nearly useless land. It will also link Carnegie Tech, the Mellon Institute, and the University of Pittsburgh, exposing their scientists to a cross-fertilization of ideas. In the first phase of construction, to be completed in 1966, 2.2 million square feet of research facilities will be made available. Cost of the first phase is estimated at $70 million. OakCorp is owned by eight educational, scientific, and charitable institutions in Pittsburgh's Oakland district. Although the owners are taxexempt organizations, OakCorp will be operated for profit and will pay taxes. OakCorp officials say that they are in the final stages of negotiations with one of the nation's largest insurance companies on financing arrangements. They add that tenants have aready been lined up for about one half of the income-producing space to be built in the first phase. Pittsburgh is counting heavily on research to bolster its industrial growth in coming decades. The area looks upon the new research center as a first step toward a goal of creating new regional industries from research. Hopes are that the spin-off of ideas from research will be a major stimulus to improving the economy of the nation. The area also expects the new research center to increase its tax income. OakCorp estimates that tax income from the Panther Hollow area will be tripled as a result of higher assessed valuations on the property. JUNE
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