NEWS OF THE WEEK dizer. The fuel can be any of a wide variety of substances, including charcoal, flour, sugar, sulfur, rosin, or paraffin. Oxley, an associate professor of chemistry, points out that unless oxidizer and fuel are intimately mixed, "you won't get a detonation/' But, she notes, "Preparation of ANFO can be as simple as pouring a fuel over a bag of ammonium nitrate." Since ANFO mixtures aren't easily initiated, they can be handled without extraordinary precautions. Indeed, because of their greater safety and economy, ammonium nitrate-based explosives similar to ANFO have replaced dynamites for most blasting operations in the mining industry, Oxley points out. Because of its insensitivity, however, ANFO cannot be initiated by a simple blasting cap, but requires a booster (another explosive) to detonate it. And compared with most other explosives, a relatively large volume of ANFO is needed to get complete detonation of the charge. Estimating how much ANFO is necessary to demolish a structure is difficult, she says, since it depends on where the explosive is placed. According to news accounts, the FBI had the defendants under surveillance. Some reportedly were videotaped buying fertilizer. And the fuel oil for the
bomb allegedly was provided by suspect Mohammad Saleh, who owns a gas station in Yonkers, N.Y. Another suspect was to provide the detonators, although none were found at the Queens "bomb factory." Although ANFO and other ammonium nitrate-based explosives have been in common commercial use for decades, they have not been widely involved in bombing incidents in the U.S. Overseas, the Irish Republican Army, to name one terrorist group, has used such formulations. But most bombing incidents in the U.S. have involved black, smokeless, or flash powders, according to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms. The problem with ANFO is that if s so easily obtained and so difficult to detect, either before or after the explosion, Oxley notes. The apparently increasing use of ANFO and related explosives is "a pretty scary trend," she adds, especially since law enforcement agents are uncovering terrorist plots using "good intelligence and luck" rather than scientific sleuthing. A nitrate-based explosive also was used in the bombing of New York City's World Trade Center on Feb. 26, FBI officials indicate. That explosion killed six persons and injured more than 1000. Ron Dagani
Restructuring afoot in European petrochemicals With what seemed like masterful bad timing for an industry marked by surplus capacity and record unprofitability, BP Chemicals last week officially commissioned a $525 million expansion of its Grangemouth, Scotland, ethylene cracker. The expansion boosts the cracker's capacity from 595 million lb per year to 1.32 billion lb. BP's expansion comes at a time when, in a recent analysis of the Western Europe petrochemicals industry, the Association of Petrochemicals Producers in Europe (APPE) notes that current production capacity is 40.6 billion lb of ethylene per year, but demand is only about 36.4 billion lb. And there are moves in the rest of the industry to restructure, with an eye to eventually cutting excess capacity. For example, Jukka Viinanen, director of Neste Corp. of Finland and chairman of APPE, noted in mid-June that there would be some sort of restructuring activity in the industry by the end of the year. This turned out to be less a predic6
JULY 5,1993 C&EN
tion than a statement of fact. Two weeks later, Viinanen and Svein Rennemo, president of the petrochemicals and plastics division of Norway's Statoil, announced that Neste and Statoil would combine their petrochemical operations in a joint venture (C&EN, June 28, page 10). The two companies view the venture as setting their petrochemicals into position to work through the recession, and to emerge as strong competitors in the long term. Other companies haven't quite reached the signed-agreement stage, but efforts are under way. For example, the U.K.'s BP Chemicals and Italy's EniChem are negotiating a venture to combine styrenics operations, although negotiations have been stalled temporarily by the political upheavals in Italy. And Anglo-Dutch producer Shell and Italy's Montecatini remain enthusiastic about a proposed joint venture for polypropylene between Shell and Montecatini's Himont. But severe financial pressures on Montecatini's parent company, Monted-
ison (see page 8), have complicated negotiations. On the other hand, a polyolefins joint venture between Huls, the petrochemicals arm of German oil company Veba, and PCD Polymère, the polymers unit of Austrian oil company CMV, seems to have collapsed, with the parent companies preferring to sell off all or parts of their polymer businesses. As Viinanen noted at a briefing in Brussels to announce Neste's venture with Statoil, the immediate question is not about rationalization—which usually means employment cuts and plant closures. "We didn't do this deal to do closures," he stressed. "The first rationalization is to reduce the number of players on the scene. If you rationalize the companies, then the assets eventually will come along. But if you don't rationalize the companies first, it won't work." A reduction in the number of players—particularly in an industry as wildly fragmented as Western European petrochemicals—can help improve profitability in the industry, which is now "as unprofitable as it has ever been," points out David Glass, a partner at consultants Chem Systems in London. "The fewer the number of players, the more likely sensible pricing and market decisions, and that will lead to closing the least efficient units, and a stronger position of players in the marketplace." At present, Glass adds, the "competitive situation is diabolical." That's not a healthy situation for the industry—or for its customers—in the long run. As for the Grangemouth expansion, BP Chemicals officials acknowledge the current inauspicious market conditions, but say there were compelling and attractive reasons for starting expansion back in 1987-88. The company wanted to expand polyethylene operations at Grangemouth, and needed increased supplies of raw material, but discussions with suppliers yielded expensive quotes. Meanwhile, British Petroleum's exploration and oil-refining units were planning to expand the pipeline from BP's North Sea fields, giving abundant supplies of hydrocarbon gases for cracker feedstock. Moreover, company officials argue, although they could buy cheap ethylene now, that situation won't continue forever. In the long run, says one Grangemouth executive, the decision is a sensible one for a well-integrated refinery and petrochemicals complex. Patricia Layman
