INTERNATIONAL
France plans vast petrochemical expansion Construction in Alsace-Lorraine features cracker using feedstock from new West German refinery Carling, in the heart of the Lorraine coal basin, could come to have France's largest chemical complex. In its vast undertaking at Carling, Charbonnages de France, the state-owned coal company, is effectively doubling the chemical production of its wholly owned subsidiary Houilleres du Bassin de Lorraine ( H B L ) . While the economic impact of what is occurring in AlsaceLorraine will be considerable, it is overshadowed by the political implications of what is the first example of chemical plant operations spanning national boundaries in western Europe. Scheduled for full production in 1972, the expansions at Carling spotlight the
determination of France and Germany to develop in concert the chemical interests of their coal companies even if it means converting those interests to a petroleum base. Charbonnages intends to stay in the van of chemical producers in France. In attaining this goal, the firm will team up with Saarbergwerke in West Germany in joint ventures to build a crude oil refinery, a steam cracker, and plants to produce urea and ammonia. Charbonnages and Saarbergwerke (74% owned by the German federal government and 26% by the state of the Saarland) are following a trail into chemicals blazed by Dutch State Mines
UGILOR. Night outlines Ugilor plant at Carling, where the company will double its acrylonitrile capacity with propylene from Carling's new cracker
French, G e r m a n chemical firms set up joint ventures Company
Location
Ownership*
Houilleres du Bassin de Lorraine
Carling, France
To double styrene capac- Charbonnages de France ity to 2 0 0 million pounds 100% per year
Saar-Raffinerie, GmbH
Furstenhausen, West Germany
Will process 1.4 million Union Generale des Pettons per year of crude proroles 10% ducing about 550,000 Cie Francaise des Petroles tons per year of naphtha 20% Antar-Petroles de I'Atlantique 10% Charbonnages de France 10% Saarbergwerke 50%
Ammoniac Sarro-Lorraine, S.a.r.L.
Carling, France
1100 tons per day of am- Charbonnages de France monia 60% Saarbergwerke 40%
Harnstoff- und Duengemittelwerke SaarLothringen, GmbH
Perl, West Germany
185,000 tons per year of Saarbergwerke urea Charbonnages
Steam cracker
Carling, France
4 4 0 million pounds per Saarbergwerke year of ethylene, 200 mil10 to 2 0 % lion pounds per year of Charbonnages 8 0 to 9 0 % propylene; capacity 660,- Participations open 000 tons per year naphtha start building: 1967 full capacity: 1972
Ethylene-Plastique
Carling, France
265 million pounds year polyethylene
Ugilor
Carling, France
From 65 million pounds Finalor per year to 130 million Charbonnages pounds per vear acrylonitrile (Distillers process)
Polymer Corp., SAF
La Wantzenau near Strasbourg, France
110,000 tons per year Polymer Corp., Ltd., CanSBR latex, already makes ada 100% specialty latexes
* C h a r b o n n a g e s t o t a l i n c l u d e s h o l d i n g s of 1 0 0 % - o w n e d 34
Capacity
C & E N N O V . 2 1 , 1966
subsidiaries.
60% 40%
per Pechiney-St. Gobain
31.4% L'Air Liquide 17.5% Charbonnages 33.42% Huiles, Goudrons et Derives 17.63% 50% 50%
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Or it may just take a day. designed D O W
chemicals
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(DSM) in Holland and one likely to be followed by the National Coal Board in England. Today, chemicals account for about half the sales and all of the profits of DSM (which also sells coal, coke, and gas ). While private firms may be unhappy about the ambitious plans of the state coal monopoly, there doesn't seem to be much they can do to prevent the Charbonnages move into petrochemicals. When they point out that the law nationalizing coal mines in France in 1946 restricted Charbonnages' activities to coal, the company counters by saying markets it has built up must be protected. Despite the fact that coke—and therefore coal chemicalproduction will remain relatively constant at 8 to 9 million tons per year in the coming decade, Charbonnages will not be limited in its chemical output by
will be a steam cracker capable of cracking 660,000 tons per year of naphtha—thus second in size only to Rhône Alpes' cracker at Freyzin, whose capacity will be more than 1 million tons of naphtha per year when it starts up by year's end. Raymond Marcellin, French Minister of Industry, has given the go-ahead for the construction of the cracker, but ownership isn't definite since participations are still open. From the cracker, integration proceeds backward to ventures with Saarbergwerke and forward to petrochemical expansions at Carling. The bulk of the naphtha for the Carling cracker will be supplied by SaarRaffinerie, GmbH, from a new refinery at Furstenhausen, West Germany. French firms will own 50% of the refinery, and Saarbergwerke the other half. Pipelines will be built to connect the
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HOUILLERES. In its mammoth enterprise at Carling, Charbonnages de France, the state-owned coal monopoly, is doubling chemical production of subsidiary Houillères du Bassin de Lorraine. Complex could become the nation's largest
a shortage of raw materials. Its petrochemical base should make it a potent competitor for the private sector. Charbonnages is one of France's largest companies. Total sales in 1965 were about $950 million. Chemical sales of the firm were about $107 million. Charbonnages says its consolidated chemical sales in 1965 were about $ 164 million. Consolidated sales take into account the firm's percentage ownership in various chemical subsidiaries. It thus ranks behind RhônePoulenc, Ugine-Kuhlmann, and Péchiney-St. Gobain as a chemical power in France. Charbonnages operates nine coal basins in France, but only two, Bassin du Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Bassin de Lorraine, have extensive chemical operations. It has three major product lines: plastics, simple fertilizers, and complex fertilizers. Keystone of the project at Carling
refinery to Perl, West Germany, and Carling, France. At Perl, Charbonnages will own 40% and Saarbergwerke 60% of Harnstoff-und Diingemittelwerke Saar-Lothringen, GmbH, which will produce 185,000 tons per year of urea. At Carling, Charbonnages will hold 60% control of Ammoniac Sarro-Lorraine, S.a.r.L.; Saarbergwerke will own 40% of the 1100 ton-per-day ammonia facility planned. Four firms will take the major share of olefins from the Carling cracker. Most of the ethylene will go to Éthylène-Plastique and Houillères du Bassin de Lorraine. Éthylène-Plastique will build a 265 million pound-per-year polyethylene plant at Carling, and HBL plans to double its styrene capacity at Carling to about 200 million pounds per year. Propylene will be taken by Ugilor, which will double its acrylonitrile capacity at Carling to
If you've been looking for an outstandingly versatile crosslinking agent (in both water and solvent systems) for a wide range of polymeric materials containing carboxyl, hydroxyl, or amide groups, you will find it in CYMEL 300 or CYMEL 301 hexamethoxymethylmelamine. Whether you are trying to achieve outstanding product properties or trying to upgrade the performance of alkyds, cellulosics, epoxies, many acrylics and vinyl polymers, your Cyanamid representative may have the answer for you. Call him —the password is crosslinking. American Cyanamid Company, C Y A JV A JVT J I > Plastics & Resins Division Wallingford, Conn. Sales offices in: Charlotte · Chicago · Cincinnati · Cleveland • Dallas · Detroit · Los Angeles · Minneapolis « New York » Oakland · Philadelphia · St. Louis · Seattle · Wallingford Also available in Canada. NOV. 21, 1966 C&EN
37
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City & State 38 C&EN NOV. 21, 1966
about 130 million pounds per year using the ammonia-propylene route. Butadiene will be sent to Polymer Corp., SAF, which will expand its S BR latex facilities at La Wantzenau near Strasbourg to a capacity of about 110,000 tons per year. Charbonnages is also playing a major role in efforts to concentrate the French chemical industry. It has already taken action to integrate two of its product lines. Plastic operations were integrated earlier this year when Charbonnages combined the sales forces of the two chemical-producing basins with two subsidiaries, Finalens and Huiles, Goudrons et Dérivés. Previously, each sold its chemical output independently. The Charbonnages agreement with Société des Produits Chimiques cTAuby concentrates the mixed fertilizer industry in France. The agreement is significant in that it is an example of a private firm combining with a state-owned enterprise which may be widely copied. Urged by the government to concentrate the nation's industry, French chemical firms first believed the optimum path would be for large companies such as Rhône-Poulenc and Péchiney-St. Gobain in the private and Charbonnages in the public sector to acquire smaller companies until there were basically three large chemical companies in France. The present trend in France, however, is to integrate on a product basis rather than by acquiring firms. Auby is France's largest producer of mixed fertilizers and is privately owned. What may be more curious is that private firms, to preserve their identity, have preferred to link with government-controlled rather than privately owned companies. In what comes close to painless integration, Auby and Charbonnages have signed an agreement which will slowly bring all their mixed fertilizer operations together. No money changes hands. By May 1967, the sales organizations of the two partners will be combined to sell the total mixed fertilizer production of the two groups. Purchases of raw materials will also be coordinated. A board similar to the board of directors of a U.S. company will be set up, composed of an equal number of members from Auby and Charbonnages. The board will extend its power to encompass production at the various plants and will eventually control investments to create largecapacity, low-cost units. Even with its entry into petrochemicals and sweeping reforms of its plastics and mixed-fertilizer interests, Charbonnages isn't finished with revamping and concentrating product lines. "We still have to make some provision for simple fertilizer operations," one executive points out.
