Earnings continue downward in first quarter Rank in C&EN's Top 50&
1 2 3 4 6
Du Pont Union Carbide Monsanto Dow Celanese
Sales (Millions off dollars)
$920.0 748.1 542.3 486.7 268.5
7 8 10 11 16
W. R. Grace Allied Chemical Hercules American Cyanamid Rohm and Haas
435.9 310.3 190.0 291.0 116.3
25 26 28 30 38
Diamond Shamrock Olin N L Industries Pfizer Air Products0
131.8 261.0 216.0 216.5 75.0
39 40 42 47 50
Koppers Akzona Air Reduction Merck Reichhold
118.5 122.9 111.8 192.2 45.7
First quarter 1971 Per cent Net incomeb change (Millions of from 1970 dollars)
-2% +3 +6 +7 +3 -5
+5 -3 -3 0 -1 -6 -5
+7 +19 +10 +23
+2 +4 +4
$74.0 43.7 30.5 32.9 13.1
Per cent change from 1970
-20%
+ 3 - 8
+ 3 -18
7.2 11.1 9.8 22.9 6.0
-22 +49 -22 -12 -24
5.4 6.2 7.5 20.0 4.3
-15 -38 -25 +11
1.0 7.7 5.5 29.2 0.4
-39 -19
+ 9
+ 6 + 4 -66
a Ranked in terms of chemical sales (see page 12). b After-tax earnings excluding any extraordinary, nonrecurring items, c Figures are for second fiscal quarter.
The long-hoped-for financial turnaround for the basic chemical industry did not materialize in the first quarter of this year. From almost complete returns it is apparent that the industry earned about 10% less, after taxes, in the first three months of 1971 than in the first three months of 1970; sales rose about 2%. This makes it the seventh consecutive quarter in which earnings have failed to reach year-earlier levels. And it makes it the longest earnings decline for the industry since depression days. During the 1966-67 economic downturn, the industry went through six consecutive quarters of declining earnings. This latest downturn puts total industry earnings for the 12-month period ending with the first quarter of this year at about $1.33 billion. This is no less than 30% down from the industry's peak of $1.9 billion reached almost five years ago during the 12-month period ending with the third quarter of 1966. Since 1966 the industry's profit margin has tumbled from 8.3% to today's 4.8%.
NTA:
Staging a comeback Nitrilotriacetic acid (NTA) may be well on the way to staging a comeback as a substitute for phosphate in detergents. At least W. R. Grace, Monsanto, and Ethyl Corp. think so. The three companies had high hopes for the detergent builder until the Government put an end to its use last December "pending further tests and review." Robert D. Goodall, W. R. Grace executive vice president who's in charge of most of the company's chemical operations, tells C&EN
that he's willing to bet three-to-one that NTA will be reinstated in this country. He won't put a date on it, but he is speaking in terms of a year or so—not five or 10 years. At Monsanto, a spokesman says the company is "guardedly optimistic" about NTA's future in detergents. And Ethyl, which is "vitally interested" in NTA, is "confident it will make a comeback in a year or two." Why all the optimism? For one thing, the Government is keeping an open mind on the subject. Dr. Ian Mitchell, a Health, Education, and Welfare official who is honcho for HEW's end of the program on NTA,
I tells C&EN that "if industry can dispel the Government's concerns about the possible hazard of this material, then we'll have to reconsider the whole matter." So far, Dr. Mitchell explains, no one has exactly duplicated government tests on NTA that led to its ban, he says, but that is about to be done. He adds that industry has run other tests that provide results which "in a sense" are in conflict with the government tests. Other tests are either in the works or under way. Monsanto, for instance, is currently running essentially the same tests the Government used as a basis for pulling NTA out of detergents. The Monsanto tests have, however, been designed to remove "inconsistencies" in the government work. Monsanto says, for example, that the Government injected cadmium rather than feeding it to test animals. Monsanto is doing both. In addition, Monsanto claims that the Government combined methylmercury with cystine (in controls) and that cystine ties up the methylmercury more tightly than does NTA; thus the Government has no good data on effects of methylmercury alone. Grace's Mr. Goodall bases his optimism on further testing being carried out by industry and by Government. He claims it indicates "all-go" for NTA so far. UNIONS:
District 50 seeks merger A labor feud is developing that will determine the future course of the chemical industry's largest labor union—International Union of District 50 Allied and Technical Workers of the U.S. and Canada. On one side, District 50 president Elwood Moffett is attempting to merge his 200,000-member union into the United Steelworkers of America (USW), whose executive board last week approved the proposed merger. Leading an opposing faction, former District 50 vice president Angelo Cefalo is challenging Mr. Moffett for the union's presidency and is attempting to affiliate the union with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers of AFL-CIO. Approval of District 50's merger into USW by District 50's executive board was expected late last week, and Mr. Moffett tells C&EN he expects "overwhelming approval" of APRIL 26, 1971 C&EN 9
