tities of specific chemical fertilizers: superphosphates (1,160.000 metric t o n s ) , nitrogenous fertilizers ( 4 3 0 , 0 0 0 metric tons of nitrogen ), a n d complex fertilizers. On an average, F r e n c h agriculture uses more than 1.6 million tons of fertilizer materials each year. $• Finished P r o d u c t s . T h e plastics industry is in full progress. Production, which did not exceed 33,000 metric tons in 1952. reached 160.000 tons in 1957, one third of this being poi\ vinyl chloride. Among the resins most re cently pr-.t into production, polyestrrs and polyethylene are showing special progress. Four new polyethylene units are being built near refineries which supply raw materials. Pharmaceutical products are repre sented by more than 20,000 specialties. O n e sixth of the turnover, which is about 150 billion francs, goes for export. After Great Britain and the United States, France was the first producer of penicillin and has considerably devel oped her manufacture ot streptomycin, dihydrostreptomycin. tyrothricine. auivomycin, tyfomycin. and terramycin. In addition, she has discovered soframycin and made considerable progress in producing neuroleptics, sulfonamides, antihistamines, vitamins, and hor mones, including cortisone and hydro cortisone, production of which has al ready reached one third that of the United States a n d covers not only the requirements of France, but also those of a large part of Europe. Synthetic detergents, the special properties of which make them pre ferred to soap for many uses, are de rived from fatty substances (alcohols and sulfonated fatty amides) and in much larger tonnages from hydrocar bons. Expressed in commercial con centration ( which varies from 20 to SO*"' ), annual production exceeds 150,000 metric tons. In foreign trade, France ranks fourth among the exporting nations for chemi cal products, coming after the United States, Great Britain, and West Ger many. Exports have risen nearly 60r/r during the past six years, reaching 140 billion francs in 1957, and imports have increased in greater proportion, reaching 102 billion francs in 1957. N o matter how satisfactory this prog ress may b e , the expansion achieved re mains insufficient and below require ments. Chemical industry expansion is even more important, as that of the ma jority of other industries d e p e n d s on the chemical industry. T h e Third 56
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5,
1959
Modernization and E q u i p m e n t Plan has therefore included among its objectives production of new products (carbon black, synthetic r u b b e r ) , increases in the tonnage manufactured of certain products considered to be essential (chlorine, nitrogen, ethylene, acetyl e n e ), and increases in money devoted to research and to the modernization of installations.
sive, b u t wages also went u p . A further complication—an increase of c h e a p im ports, such as plastics. A slight reduc tion in profits, which naturally varies very m u c h in individual segments, had t o be accepted. T h e West G e r m a n chemical industry has in recent years fairly constantly in v e s t e d 1.4 to 1.5 billion D M yearly. Expansions and improvements have p r o c e e d e d side by side, with invest m e n t s in improvements gaining increas ingly in size and significance. Special The German tasks, such as the plant expansion in t h e petrochemicals field, have been Chemical Industry effectively carried out. Measured U L R I C H H A B E R L A N P , C h a i r m a n , against sales, the share of investment d r o p p e d from 9 . 5 ' t in 1956 to SfO id Association of the 1957. and 1958 should be somewhat C h e m i c a l Industry l>elo\v that. In general, chemical exports havej T h e chemical industry of the Ger been under intensified international man Federal Republic continued its expansion in 1958. Tine, the tempo competitive pressure, but in t h e first nine months of 1958 were nevertheless has slowed down. Statistics available able to increase by 1.6'* to 3.4 billion for the first three quarters show a 4 . 4 ' Ί D M . so that 1 9 5 7 s export total of 4.5 increase in sales, whereas in the same billion D M will again be reached or period of the previous year, sales had slightly exceeded. Exports of coal tar risen by 1 3 . 6 ' / . Since other branches of industry slowed more, however, dyes, cellulose staple fiber, a n d pig m e n t s are declining. Nitrogen and. chemicals maintained third place in West G e r m a i n ' s industries. T h e num particularly, plastics increased con siderably, and the share of exports now ber employed actually rose, in spite of a m o u n t s to nearly 3 0 r ^ . modernization programs, by 8000 u p to If the main emphasis in W e s t Ger the end of September and increased m a n y ' s chemical exports in t h e past to 423.600 workers and employees. year showed a marked shift, t h e prin In 1958, chemical sales probably cipal cause is that countries producing reached 18 billion D M , as against raw materials can't buy as much when 17.2 billion "DM in 1957. Consumer faeed with the decline in world mar chemicals, lagging behind for years, re kets. Expressed in figures, this means covered strongly. Measured by pro that the overseas share of chemical ex duction indexes, these chemicals in ports from January to S ^ptember 1958 creased 11.2'r during the first nine d r o p p e d from 39.5 to 3H.2ri. In Asian months, whereas the total consumer t r a d e , orders from India and Indonesia qoods industry in West Germany de in particular declined for the reason clined l . o ^ . mentioned. South American trade also Chemical industry sectors favored was below that of the previous year, particularly by consumer markets were and the better Argentine trade could pharmaceuticals and plastics. These not make up for reductions in Co increased 13 to 1 4 ' / . Varnishes and lombia and, especially, Brazil. Ex paints also are up considerably over the ports to North and Central America average, with sales increases of about 8f < . If any stagnation can b e seen, it have dropped, mostly because of the reduced purchases by the U. S., with occurred in coal tar dyes and textile the recession no d o u b t playing a role. chemicals generally, a reaction stem Although chemical trade with the ming from the inactivity occurring in European continent developed in a the textile industry. thoroughly satisfactory manner, the Heavy pressure on prices was charac statistics for nine months show large teristic in 1958. This explains why the fluctuations from country to country. value of sales increased much more Chemical business suffered under the slowly than production. T h e second import restrictions in France, while half of 195S, especially, was dis Switzerland and Belgium bought al tinguished by the decline in proceeds most exactly as much as in the previous from sales. Moreover, production costs year. Business with Italy developed rose. Not only were numerous pri most favorably. Italy increased hei mary products and power more expen
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SBR production in Western Europe is being boosted by plants siicli as this one in West Germany. Here, rubber purchases t>y 29.8 million DM to 204 million DM, and thus became the sec ond be-st customer for West Germany chemical products. As before, Holland, with purchases to the value of 225 million DM takes first place. A con siderable increase also occurred in deliveries of chemicals to England and to Austria. Chemical exports to East European countries were disappointing. Before the war, these countries took 20'r of our chemical exports, but the 4.1% share of last year has sunk fur ther t o 3.89fc. Deserving special mention for 1938 is the very considerable rise in chemical imports into the Federal Republic. The large scale liberalization policy and the previous decreases in customs have clearly ma.de West Germany into a favored sales market for foreign chemi cal products. These chemical imports rose i n comparison with the same nine montHs of the previous year b y 7.5% to 1.3 billion DM. In comparison, chemical exports rose by only 1.6%. In t h e increase in imports, semifinished
crumbs are washed in a central tank and transported to four dewatering sieves. Compressed air carries them to dryers
and finished products shared equally— they increased by 30%, whereas im ports of chemical raw materials actu ally declined. Today, imports of raw materials amount to only 15% of West Germany's total chemical imports as compared with 2 1 % during the same period in 1957. T h e greatest increases in imports are in chemicals to approxi mately 221 million DM and in plastics, to just 128 million DM. Then follow purchases of pharmaceutical products, which have risen to about 103 million DM. Imports of photographic chemi cals show a markedly rising trend. The European integration efforts are being followed watchfully by the German chemical industry. This in dustry is not satisfied with the stage reached at the end of the year. It sees in the European Common Market of the six countries only the first stage to the greater community of the 17 O E E C countries. In this, however, it will never lose sight of the final goal: a really free, genuine competition of the whole world.
The Italian Chemical Industry Luigi Sessa, Chairman, Associazione Nazionale dell 1 Industria Chimica Several months after tbe recession began in the U. S., it started to be felt with varying intensity in Western Eu rope. So far as Italian industrial pro duction is concerned, the recession caused a slowing down rather than a stopping of the expansion which has been taking place for several years. The chemical industry, however, suf fered not at all. Data for all of 1958 aren't in, b u t coupling figures for the first nine months with the improvement shown in the last three gives an encour aging picture. In 1957 the index of chemical production ( 1953 equals 100) increased 4 % over 1956. During the first three quarters of last year, the in dex was u p 5.5% over the same period for 1957. Provisional data for the final JAN.
5.
1959
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