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CONCENTRATES
INDUSTRY The chemical industry is giving more money to higher education. Twenty-five chemical companies contributed $17.7 million to higher education in 1966, according to a new survey on corporation support of higher education by the Council for Financial Aid to Education, Inc. The figure represents an increase of 39% over the $12.7 million contributed by this core group of 25 in 1964. The companies' combined contributions also represent 0.50% of their pretax net income in 1966 compared with 0.49% in 1964 and 0.47% in 1962. CFAE surveyed 1074 U.S. corporations and found that they contributed a combined $139.8 million to higher education last year. Polyisoprene capacity will increase significantly this month. Goodyear expects to put on stream a 33% expansion at its Beaumont, Tex., plant and says that the expected increase in production capacity made possible its recent price cut of 1 to 2 cents per pound on four grades of polyisoprene. GoodrichGulf has just begun polyisoprene production at its Institute, W.Va., plant, which has recently been converted from polybutadiene manufacture. Goodrich-Gulfs 100 million pound-per-year plant now being built at Orange, Tex., is expected to be completed in early 1969. The company estimates that polyisoprene consumption will triple by 1970. Continental Oil and Stauffer Chemical have agreed to an FTC consent order which ends their joint venture to produce vinyl chloride monomer. The Federal Trade Commission order, which will not become final until Nov. 7, requires Stauffer to sell to Continental all of its interests in the vinyl chloride plant now being jointly built by the two companies at Lake Charles, La. The order also requires Stauffer to license its technology and knowhow to Continental. In addition, Continental has agreed to divest itself of two polyvinyl chloride producers—Thompson Chemical Co. and Apex Tire and Rubber Co. A 45,000 ton-per-year primary magnesium plant is planned by National Lead and H-K Co. for the Salt Lake area in 1970—if electric power is available at a low enough rate. Decision to proceed with the project hinges largely on the outcome of Utah's Public Service Commission hearings that will reopen Nov. 27. Raft River Rural Electric Cooperative Service of Idaho wants permission to supply electricity to northwest Utah for about three mils per kwh. as opposed to Utah Power and Light's five-mil figure. The two largest U.S. chemical makers have more bad news for their stockholders. Union Carbide vice president and treasurer William S. Sneath told the security analysts of San Francisco that preliminary indications are that 1967 third-quarter sales were about $544 million, 5% below the same period in 1966. Earnings might be 36% below last year's third quarter. Du Pont's treasurer, H. Wallace Evans, says that Du Pont's third-quarter earnings fell about 19% as sales were down about 1% from the $7.73 million reported in 1966. Great Britain's brain drain is reaching alarming proportions and action must be taken now to stem the tide, warns a government report released in Britain last week. Currently, Britain is losing 42% of its engineers and technicians and 23% of the scientists produced by the country's education system at a cost of about $84,000 each, according to the Jones Committee, which was set up last year to study the problem. OCT. 16, 1967 C&EN
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