INDUSTRY THIS WEEK IN BRIEF
N e w construction Occidental Petroleum Corp. has begun operation of its chemical complex in Hamilton County, Fla. The chemical complex, part of a $55 million investment in northern Florida, will produce 470,000 tons per year of superphosphoric acid, triple superphosphate, and diammonium phosphate. The complex is next to Occidental's phosphate mine which is being doubled in capacity to 3 million tons annually. Included at the complex are $3.6 million of water and air pollution control systems. Emery Industries, Inc., a maker of oleochemicals and drycleaning products, will construct a $1 million technical center in Cincinnati, Ohio. The structure will augment Emery's research laboratories and allow for expansion in engineering, new product development, technical sales service, product research, and process research. Great Lakes Carbon Corp. will increase foundry coke capacity by 115,000 tons a year at its St. Louis plant. Allied Chemical's Wilputte Coke Oven division will build 35 ovens for Great Lakes in St. Louis by the second quarter of 1967.
Corporate Alcolac Chemical Corp. has a license from Monsanto to make and market three polyoxyethylene thioethers formerly sold as Sterox surfactants. These nonionic surface active agents, produced in Alcolac's expanded facilities at Baltimore, are used for agricultural specialties, textile processing, and other wetting applications. Universal Oil Products has acquired Norplex Corp., La Crosse, Wis., for 275,000 shares of stock valued at $18 million. Norplex makes industrial plastic laminates and fabricates small parts for electronic, electrical, and mechanical purposes. The company's earnings growth rate has been 2 5 % over the past five years. Abbott Laboratories has acquired Faultless Rubber Co. in exchange for 110,554 shares of common stock. Faultless will be operated as a separate unit. Parke, Davis & Co. has purchased for cash the Aeroplast Corp. of Dayton, Ohio, a subsidiary of Helene Curtis. Aeroplast makes surgical drapes and spray dressings used in hospitals. No purchase price was disclosed. Pittsburgh Plate Glass has adopted a new corporate symbol—PPG Industries—and may change the company's name in 1968. PPG, which at one time made only plate glass, produces many kinds of flat glass, basic chemicals, and industrial and automotive finishes. New Idria Mining and Chemical Co. has negotiated a longterm lease for an estimated 33 million-ton phosphate ore deposit near Bakersfield, Calif. Commercial grade phosphate is expected within a year. The deposits, to be mined by the open pit method, are close to a major mar-
ket for soil additives—the San Joaquin valley. New Idria says it expects to sell the phosphate at a lower price because competitors must freight additives from Utah and Nevada. General Electric has formed a new group in its silicone products department to develop products for the process industries, including chemicals, metals, petroleum, plastics, and chemical specialties. W. L. Batty, Jr., former sales manager of the department's eastern office, will head the operation.
International Danubia-Petrochemie A.G., a subsidiary of Oesterreichische Stickstoffwerke A.G., will build Austria's first oxo alcohol plant at Schwechat, near the 110 million pound-peryear polyethylene plant BASF and OSW will build. Propylene for the oxo alcohol unit will be supplied by the refinery of Oesterreichische Mineraloelverwaltungs A.G. Freeport Sulphur's new division, Freeport Chemical Co., has begun a $40 million phosphate chemical complex near Convent, La. Wellman-Lord, Inc., will construct the phosphoric acid units, and Chemical Construction Co. will build sulfuric acid trains. Production of phosphoric acid is scheduled for the middle of 1968. Imperial Oil's PVC resin plant in Sarnia, Ont., is on stream. The $5 million unit has a capacity of 45 million pounds per year. Facilities for a complete line of PVC compounds will be completed early next year. Marbon Chemical division of Borg-Warner Corp. and Moulded Products (Australasia), Ltd., plan to build an ABS plant in Australia. Although a site has not been chosen, the plant is scheduled to go on stream in 1968. Hercules Kemiska Aktiebolag has started production at a new paper chemicals plant in Sandarne, Sweden. The plant manufactures Pexol, a fortified rosin, which gives paper increased resistance to water and other liquids. International Nickel of Canada has started a $4 million, 850 ton-per-day oxygen plant at Copper Cliff, Ont. The air separation plant, built by American Air Liquide, will separate oxygen, nitrogen, and rare gases from the air by low-temperature techniques. Inco's oxygen capacity at Copper Cliff is now more than 1100 tons per day. International B. F. Goodrich Co. will construct a technical center at Enschede, the Netherlands. The technical center will contain facilities for research on and testing of tires developed for the European market. Compagnia Générale Résine Sud, Italy, will triple its polyester fiber capacity. Production of the fiber will start from dimethyl terephthalate and ethylene glycol and include polycondensation, direct spinning, and fiber reprocessing. The plant will be erected by Vickers-Zimmer at Vibo Valentia. OCT. 24, 1966 C&EN 35
