THE CHEMICAL WORLD THIS WEEK
Sir Frederick Bain being greeted by the vice chairman of the American Section of the SCI, Robert C. Swain, American Cyanamid Co.
British Chemical Industry To Increase Capacity 7 0 % C&EN REPORTS: Society of the Chemical Industry, Annual Meeting
NEW YORK CITY.-Great Britain's chemical industry, presently capitalized at about £,400 million sterling ($1,120 million) and employing some 142,000 persons, is engaged in an expansion program that will increase its potential annual productive capacity by about 70%, said Sir Frederick Bain in an address before the Society of Chemical Industry on Feb. 17. The speaker, who is deputy chairman of Imperial Chemical Industries, Ltd., Britain's dominating chemical concern and who headed his country's chemical control board during the last war, estimated that the new projects will cost about $534 million, of which the greatest amount, $120 million, will be spent on plants to manufacture heavy organic chemicals. In addition, the British industry has blueprinted plant expansions in basic inorganics such as sulfuric acid, alkalies, chlorine, and various inorganic acids and salts; also industrial gases, dyestuffs, pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, and pigments. Scientific research involved in this British chemical expansion, Sir Frederick disclosed, will be considerable. Expenditures for research and development will amount to about $32.2 million when the plants are completed. He could not express this in ratio to future sales turnover but thought it would be of the same order 772
as that in the United States. The speaker submitted figures to show that the investment per employee in the British chemical industry meanwhile has increased considerably. Many of the data in Sir Frederick's address were taken from a special survey conducted by the Association of British Chemical Manufacturers, a report of which has just been published. Great Britain, he said, is engaged in an extensive effort to provide more of its own food. The country is using some 160% more fertilizer than it did before the war, and crop yields have increased considerably. The industry is also expanding its activities in other countries. The report revealed that 39 British chemical firms have between them established 107 subsidiary or associate companies in various parts of the world. Britain has always been a net
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exporter of chemicals, and since the war chemical exports have exceeded imports by between $112 and $140 million. In 1949 the balance was $168 million. The British chemical industry, in other words, is now exporting more than it did before the war. The export figures at that time were 10 to 12 ^ — ^
Philadelphia C o l l e g e t o Re$r*n? Doctorate Studies in P h o n i c ν For the first time since the -v.i. t - . .< the closing of all graduate clasc - ( .e Philadelphia College of Pham
