INDUSTRY THIS WEEK IN BRIEF
N e w construction Reichhold Chemicals, Inc., will build a new plasticizer plant at Carteret, N.J. The first unit of the plant will produce a complete line of specialty plasticizers for the vinyl, rubber, adhesives, and coatings industry. The unit, due on stream in the third quarter of 1968, will have an annual capacity of more than 25 million pounds of specialty plasticizers. These include polymeries, high-molecular-weight phthalates, maleates, fumarates, azelates, and sebacates. The plant will also be equipped to produce specialty esters. Reichhold will phase out its Cambridge, Mass., plant, where it currently produces these products, to make way for a NASA laboratory. The company will continue making monomeric plasticizers at its Newark, N.J., plant. But in a second phase of the Carteret expansion, the firm will replace and more than double the Newark plant capacity. General Aniline & Film Corp., New York, N.Y., has begun expansion of its chlorine and caustic soda facility at Linden, N.J. Scheduled for completion by mid-1969, the expansion will result in a capacity almost double the 200 tons per day now being produced. Krebs & Cie, Paris, France, is designing and engineering the new facility, which will be built by C. F. Braun & Co., Alhambra, Calif. FMC Corp.'s organic chemical division will build a 40 million pound-per-year synthetic glycerin plant in Bayport, Tex. Construction by Badger Co., Inc., will begin shortly and is scheduled for completion in late 1968. The plant will be FMC's first wholly owned chemical facility in the Texas gulf area. International Petro-Chem, Inc., Houston, Tex., plans to build what will be the second domestic plant to make furfural and furfural alcohol. The Lafayette, La., plant is scheduled to come on stream in fall of 1968 at two thirds of its 30 million pound-per-year capacity. The $2.5 million plant will use a Swedish process to produce furfural from sugar cane bagasse. Quaker Oats, the only other U.S. producer of furfural, uses corncobs and grain byproducts as raw materials.
structure of its fibers and laminates operation in Odenton, Md. Previously operated as a wholly owned affiliate of Enjay, National Plastic Products Co. is now a division of Enjay with the new name Enjay Fibers and Laminates Co. The new division produces polypropylene fiber, which is sold under the trademark Vectra, and decorative laminates called Nevamar. The Fluorocarbon Co. of Anaheim, Calif., has purchased S&W Coatings, City of Industry, Calif. The acquisition is Fluorocarbon's first entry into the high-speed production of exotic-plastic-coated metal. Minerals & Chemicals Philipp Corp. has merged with Engelhard Industries, Inc., to form a new company, Engelhard Minerals & Chemicals Corp. Approximately 83.5% of the issued and outstanding stock of MCP was voted in favor of the merger. Air Reduction Co. and British Oxygen Co. have formed a joint venture to design, construct, and market low-temperature, air separation plants. The U.S.-based firm, AircoBoc Cryogenic Plants Corp., will contribute Airco's processing details and U.S. marketing knowledge. Its British counterpart, Boc-Airco Cryogenic Plants, Ltd., will assume all manufacturing responsibilities, which will be done at existing facilities owned previously by Boc. The joint venture enables Airco to manufacture cryogenic plants which it previously had to contract out to construction firms. In return, Boc gains entry into the U.S. market. Millmaster Onyx Corp., New York City, has acquired Apache Foam Products, Rockford and Belvidere, ML, from Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. Apache Foam Products is the manufacturer of rigid urethane foam for the building and insulation industries. The company will be the twelfth division in Millmaster Onyx Corp.'s chemical complex. Tracor, Inc., Austin, Tex., has agreed to acquire Westronics, Inc., Fort Worth, manufacturers of chart recorders and indicators. Tracor will pay a maximum of 15,000 shares of its common stock plus 35,000 shares of convertible preferred stock. Westronics, Inc., which expects to have sales of about $2 million this year, will function as a Tracor subsidiary.
Corporate McLaughlin Gormley King Co., Minneapolis, Minn., has formed a new subsidiary, Hardwicke Chemical Co. The new company has purchased a 15-acre plant site near Elgin, S.C., and will specialize in the manufacture of organic chemicals such as polymer intermediates, agricultural chemicals, textile auxiliaries, and various additives. Production facilities are scheduled for completion in early 1968. The parent company is a producer of refined pyrethrum concentrates and insecticidal products. Enjay Chemical Co. has changed the name and corporate 24 C&EN OCT. 16, 1967
Markets Freeport Sulphur Co., New York City, has completed a $14.8 million exploration program begun last year in the Gulf of Mexico without finding sulfur. As a result Freeport is increasing its domestic sulfur prices by $5.50 per ton. For the fifth consecutive year, the company says, sulfur demand is exceeding production. As the prospects for finding new reserves of low-cost sulfur diminish, the world may well have to turn to known higher-cost sources, it adds.
