(including chemical fertilizers) were a record $180 million in 1957.
INTERNATIONAL Bayer's Sales Rise Farbenfabriken Bayer of West Ger m a n y had a prosperous time last year. Its 50,000 employees turned out some 25,000 products—from chemicals to Agfa cameras—to bring in sales of $440 million, up 16'/< oven- 1956, according to Bayer's 1957 annual report. And these sales weren't all for the home folk: 41 (,c was exported to 133 coun tries; marketed with the help of 346 firms acting as Bayer representatives abroad. Bayer was expanding as well as sell ing in 1957. It reports an outlay of $74.7 million for new production facili ties last year. The spending included H new titanium dioxide plant on the Rhine and facilities for making syn thetic fibers and petroleum products. Investment abroad included $9.5 million for completing facilities begun in 1956 in Belford Roxo, Brazil. Prod ucts of Bayer do Brazil Industrias Quimicas (Bayer's Brazil organization) include dyes and dyeing auxiliaries, agricultural chemicals, sulfuric acid, and organic intermediates. Research and development pro grams cost Bayer $19.6 million last year, not including $3 million1 for new laboratories in Leverkusen and Elberfeld, Germany. Meanwhile, Bayer Foreign Invest ments (Bayforin), Toronto, formed last year to handle Bayer's investments in North, ("entrai, and South America, Africa, and Western Europe (C&EN, June 16, page 8 0 ) , has secured a medium-term U. S. credit of $20 mil lion from an international banking group; J. P. Morgan & Co. is agent for the banking group. The credit will b e used to consolidate existing borrow ing incurred by past expansion, as well as for further expansion in Bayforin's domain.
• Reichhold Chemicals will increase capitalization of three of its European companies to allow major plant expan sions and more diversified production of basic chemicals and synthetic resins. These moves are a part of Reichhold's over-all expansion program ( C&EN, July 7, page 3 4 ) . The capitalization increases will go to the following firms: 78
C&EN
AUG.
2 5,
1958
Oel & Chemie W e r k . Switzerland, from $0.58 to 81.16 million (This will in clude a new 3000 ton-per-year phthalic anhydride plant); Reichhold Chernie, Germany, from $0.96 to $1.20 million; and Reichhold-Beekacite, France, from $0.80 to $1.20 million. • Australia has relaxed its import li censing system to allow a wide r a n g e of capital equipment to be imported from dollar sources. For chemicals and al lied products, the U. K. also has dropped import licensing restrictions (C&EN, Aug. 11, page 2 5 ) . • West German plastic industry m a d e 588,721 metric tons of raw plastics in 1957, u p 22% over the previous year. Member countries of the Organization, for European Economic Cooperation also have reached new highs in plastics last year, with total sales of plastic ma terials u p 19% from 1956 (C&EN, Aug. 4, page 60. ) • Stone & Webster has expanded its European operations by forming a Netherlands subsidiary and further in tegrating its British. French, and Aus tralian subsidiaries. The Dutch s u b sidiary will have headquarters in T h e Hague. xL. B. Badger & Sons, Britain; Etablissements Badger. France; a n d Ε. Β. Badger & Sons. Australia, will n o w operate under the Stone & Webster name. • Europe's
scientific
discoveries
of
commercial significance will be sur veyed for the American industry b y a joint project of Robert S. First, an in dustrial consultant, and Foster D . Snell, Inc. The project will cover the chemi cal, plastics, and pharmaceutical indus tries in England, France, Holland, Bel gium, Italy, West Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland. The report will be available by subscription from Foster D. Snell Inc., New York 11, Ν. Υ. • Use of organic fertilizers in France is growing: In 1938 to 1939 they w e r e 32% of all fertilizers used; in 1956 to 1957 they were1 more than 47% of the total. Organic fertilizer delivered to French farmers in 1957 was 3.2 million metric tons, up 2&r/< from 1956. T o t a l sales of the French fertilizer industry
• Maleic anhydride—at 2.2 million pounds a year—will b e m a d e by the Italian firm, Ftalital, at a plant to b e built at Bergamo, Italy. Scientific De sign and an affiliated company, Société Française des Services Techniques, will furnish the process engineering and major equipment design. • Polyethylene may be made by Industrias Plasticas Argentinas Koppers, a partially-owned subsidiary of Koppers. The firm has contracted with Yacimento Petrolifero Fiscales (a state-owned oil company) to use gas from its refineries to make ethylene, which would then b e made into polyethylene. Koppers will furnish the "know-how" and operational management. • Plutonium at the rate of 40 kilograms a year will be made by France's new atomic reactor at Marcoule. This output is double tbe previous estimated capacity (C&EN. June 16, page 8 0 ) . The plant will achieve this output by the end of the year and will also feed more than 30,000 kilowatts of electricity into the national grid. A smaller plutonium plant is already operating, and a third is expected to "go critical" by the end of the year, increasing French plutonium output to 100 kilograms a year by 1959. • Low pressure process polyethylene
will be made by Rheinische Olefinwerke, of Wesseling, Germany. A $6.4 million plant is under way in Western Germany, and will use the Phillips process. T h e firm, a joint subsidiary of BASF and Shell, is also expanding its high pressure polyethylene installations. Output last year was 150,000 metric tons. • Franco's petrochemical industry had
the following output (in metric tons) for some of its main products last year; estimated outputs for 1962 are also listed; Ethylene Propylene Butadiene Xylene Plastics Various solvents Synthetic detergents
1957 4,325 50,000 some hundreds 8,100 155,000 300,000
1962 85,600 142,000 12,000 38,000 345,000 405,000
190,000
430,000
Benzene production of 71,000 metric tons last year is expected to double by 1962 because of increased demands for styrene and detergents.
