INDUSTRY THIS WEEK IN BRIEF
New construction SCM Corp.'s Glidden-Durkee division plans a $20 million expansion of its titanium dioxide pigment capacity at Baltimore, Md. The first stage of the expansion will increase capacity by 25,000 tons per year, bringing total capacity to about 75,000 tons per year. Construction is scheduled to begin about July 1, with completion of the first stage slated for early 1970. The pigment will be produced under a license from American Potash & Chemical Corp. C. F. Braun and Co., Alhambra, Calif., will build the facility. Corporate PPG Industries, Inc., is the new name of Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. Robinson F. Barker, PPG's board chairman and chief executive officer, says that the new name more accurately reflects the company's diversification and growth. When the corporation was established in 1883 it made only one product—plate glass. Mr. Barker says that polished plate glass now constitutes less than 1 0 % of total corporate sales. Allis-Chalmers, Milwaukee, Wis., has formed an advanced electrochemical products division. The company says the division is designed to compete for new business in the government technology market in areas of technology development and application, new product development and application, and hardware production. Sindair-Koppers will close its high-density polyethylene resins plant at Port Reading, N.J., on April 26. SindairKoppers president C. E. Brown says the company searched unsuccessfully for a buyer for more than a year. He blames the closing of the 11-year-old plant on the lack of an assured supply of sufficient ethylene feedstock to operate the plant at an economical level and the unsatisfactory price of the raw material in the New Jersey area. The company will supply its customers from its recently completed polyethylene plant at Port Arthur, Tex. Continental Carbon Co., Houston, Tex., and Lucky Chemical Co., Seoul, Korea, have formed a joint venture—Korea Continental Carbon Co., Ltd.—to make carbon black in Korea. The new company will build a $3 million facility in Seoul. The plant will have an initial capacity of 7500 metric tons per year and will be designed for expansion to 15,000 metric tons per year. Construction is to begin this month, with completion slated for early 1969. Continental Carbon Co. is owned by Continental Oil Co., Diamond Shamrock Corp., and Witco Chemical Co., Inc. Blocked Iron Corp., Montrose, N.Y., has granted an exclusive license to Koppers Co., Inc., Pittsburgh, to design and build iron ore pelletizing plants using a carbonate-bonding process developed and patented by Blocked Iron. In the carbonate-bonding process, a mixture of fine iron ore,
basic hydroxide, and other materials such as coal are balled and brought into contact with carbon dioxide under controlled moisture conditions and at low temperature to form a hard, durable agglomerate. Blocked Iron says that pellets formed by its process can be made at lower cost than those made by high-temperature methods. international Algemene Kunstzijde Unie, N.V., a Dutch group with major interests in yarns and fibers, has agreed to supply Slovensky Hodvab, N.P., with equipment and expertise to construct a polyester textile yarns plant at Senica, Czechoslovakia. The plant is scheduled to produce 3000 metric tons annually starting in 1970. Institutt for Atomenergi (IFA) of Norway and the U.K. Atomic Energy Authority will cooperate in a power reactor systems study. UKAEA will provide information for a technical and economic study of advanced gas-cooled reactors with regard to Norwegian conditions. IFA will assess various reactors in the 500-Mw(e). range in collaboration with Norwegian utility organizations. The study is aimed at building competence in Norway for assessment and possible later construction of gas-cooled reactors. It will also identify components of systems which can be manufactured by Norwegian industry. Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd. (U.K.), has bought a controlling interest in the Belgian pharmaceuticals company, Pharma-Union, N.V., Ghent. For the past four years ICI has had a 5 0 % stake in Pharma-Union, which distributes ICI's pharmaceutical products in Belgium and Luxembourg. Pharma-Union also handles ICI (Holland) ethical medicines for the Dutch market. The Belgian company will continue to make and sell its own line of products. The Council of Europe, which met in Strasbourg last fall (C&EN, Nov. 20, 1967, page 29) to devise an international system for classifying patents that was later adopted by 15 countries, says the new system will go into force this September, not in July as originally anticipated. Copies of the new convention will be available in September in both English and French from Morgan-Grampoon Books, Ltd., 28 Essex St., London, W.C.2. In other action on international patents, a working group meeting in Geneva late last month hammered out a refined and more detailed version of the proposed Patent Cooperation Treaty that was drawn up by the United International Bureau for the Protection of Intellectual Property and initially discussed by the committee of experts last year (C&EN, Oct. 16, 1967, page 15). The rworking group recommends that an international search system be set up using existing facilities and that the search be conducted by major patent offices. As to what kind of documentation should be used, the working group proposed, as a minimum, the patents of major countries dating back to 1920. APRIL 15, 1968 C&EN
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