More Methyl Chloride Capacity On Stream Ancon's plant could add sharp rise to supplies of methyl chloride; TML is fastest rising outlet A new company joins the ranks of methyl chloride producers with the formal opening of Ancon Chemical's plant at Lake Charles, La. The plant was built at a cost of more than $1 million and is designed to have an ultimate capacity of 60 million pounds per year—enough to fill about half of current U.S. demand—with the addition of more reactors to the two now operating. Ancon is owned jointly by Ansul Chemical and Continental Oil. Output of its new plant will be marketed by Ansul, which also makes methyl chloride both for captive use and sale at its own plant at Marinette, Wis. Ansul also supplied process know-how for the Lake Charles plant and is responsible for its operation. The plant is adjacent to Conoco's Lake Charles refinery, from which it draws utilities. Conoco also supplies laboratory, maintenance, and other services, as well as an important raw material, the as yet undisclosed reaction medium. Both companies supplied personnel to Ancon. Potential use of refinery streams or chemical products from Conoco's refinery or of its unoccupied land for future expansion is another factor behind the Ancon partnership. Ancon officials say they may make other chemicals at Lake Charles, although they have not revealed details. Growth Expected. Demand for methyl chloride totaled about 108 million pounds last year, up from about 30 million pounds in 1955. The bulk of consumption is used in producing silicones, a market that sopped up about 70 million pounds of methyl chloride in 1961. The second biggest market last year was in butyl rubber production, where methyl chloride is used as a solvent for isoprene and isobutylene raw materials and for the aluminum chloride catalyst. A low temperature reaction, polymerization of butyl rubber requires a solvent that remains liquid in the —125° to —150° F. rarige. About 15 million pounds of methyl chloride went to this outlet in 1961. But the fastest growing market for methyl chloride is in tetramethyllead production (C&EN, July 24, 1961,
page 2 8 ) . U.S. output of TML took about 10 million pounds last year. But next year, demand for methyl chloride for TML is expected to rise to 50 million pounds. In contrast, use for making silicones will consume an estimated 80 million pounds then, while 19 million pounds will be used for butyl rubber. Miscellaneous uses include making methyl cellulose, which consumed about 7.5 million pounds last year. About 6 million pounds went for making quaternary ammonium compounds, trivalent arsenical compounds, and other miscellaneous products. As consumption of methyl chloride has increased, its price has dropped. The most recent price cut, last January, brought the posted price down 2 3 / 4 cents to 10 cents per pound in tank car quantities. Eyes on Markets. Ancon hopes to export methyl chloride from Lake Charles, president Robert C. Hood says. The company has its sights on Europe, where the consumption pattern is similar to that of the U.S. but,
according to Mr. Hood, per capita use is only an eighth that of the U.S. The Lake Charles location also is convenient to major U.S. consumers, present and potential. Houston Chemical, for example, makes TML at Beaumont, Tex., about 75 miles away. And Cities Service, through its Columbian Carbon subsidiary, plans to build a 35,000 ton-a-year butyl rubber plant at Lake Charles (C&EN, Jan. 15, page 25). Ancon also has local sources of raw materials at Lake Charles. Anhydrous hydrogen chloride comes by pipeline from Pittsburgh Plate Glass' plant about half a mile away. Methanol is barged to the plant from several producers on or near the Gulf Coast. The process used by Ancon basically is a standard hydrochlorinatioji of methanol with modifications developed by Ansul. Hydrogen chloride is mixed with methanol under pressure, added to the reaction medium and catalyst, and the whole mixture is then added to glass-lined reactors. Methyl chloride, by-products (water and small amounts of dimethyl ether), and excess hydrogen chloride and methanol come out of the top of the reactors. Methyl chloride is separated and sent to the plant's purification section, from which it is turned out as 99.997* methyl chloride.
NEW METHYL CHLORIDE PLANT. Ancon Chemical's Lake Charles, La., plant would be able to produce 60 million pounds a year of methyl chloride merely by increasing reactor capacity; present reactors (white vessels on right) can turn out half that amount. Control house is at left; recovery tower is in the background JUNE
18,
1952
C&EN
35
Federal Jury Acquits Rock Salt Producers But Philadelphia charges price fixing on bids for salt and other chemicals in a separate action In Minneapolis a federal jury has acquitted three rock salt producers of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act (C&EN, May 7, page 28). The Government's case had emphasized identical prices heavily as evidence of collusion. The defendants contended that identical prices among producers of rock salt result from competition, not collusion. The decision in favor of the salt companiesDiamond Crystal Salt Co., International Salt Co., and Morton Salt Co.— could mean that producers now have less reason to worry about suits based on identical pricing alone. While the three companies are free of criminal charges, they still face a civil suit with identical charges filed by the Government some time ago. So their efforts in vindicating themselves may not be over. But the Government may decide that its case is too weak to pursue the action further. Carey Salt Co. had pleaded no contest to the charges prior to the trial. Carey signed a consent decree in the civil suit and could be sentenced with a fine on the criminal charge under the no contest plea. Meanwhile, in a separate action, identical low bids from 10 different suppliers of chlorine, hydrated lime, and rock salt to Philadelphia, Pa., have led the city's mayor, James H. J. Tate, to call for a federal investigation of possible antitrust law violations. The bids cover chemicals worth about $550,000. The mayor called for an investigation because he "cannot believe that production, administrative, shipping, and overhead costs can be the same for each company producing these chemicals down to a tenth of a cent." A study of bids for previous years shows similar identical bids, Mayor Tate adds. The mayor charges that Pennsalt Chemicals and Pioneer Salt Co., both of Philadelphia, were identical low bidders at $0.0515 per pound for 4 million pounds of liquid chlorine in 1-ton containers, and that Pennsalt, Pioneer, Merchant Product Corp., also of Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh Plate Glass, Pittsburgh, Pa., offered low tie 36
C&EN
JUNE
18,
1962
bids of $0.0353 per pound for 6 million pounds of liquid chlorine in tank car quantities. The city solicitor has made a written request asking the Department of Justice to look into the identical bids. In addition, the city may launch civil suits against the companies involved. The city's law department says it has evidence of collusive bidding going back to 1957, and maybe to 1952. One of the reasons that the city is requesting an investigation, says a city spokesman, is that last year's indictment by the federal grand jury in Minneapolis of four firms on charges of price-fixing led to two unsolicited offers by one supplier to Philadelphia to drop the price of rock salt below the bid price. Now that the heat is off, says the same spokesman, the prices are back up again. None of the companies involved would comment on these recent charges by Mayor Tate, except to say that identical prices are the result of competition rather than of price collusion.
Four Companies Plan Tar Sands Development Cities Service Athabasca, Inc., and three other oil companies plan to spend some $250 million to develop oil production from Canada's Athabasca tar sands, near McMurry. The four made the disclosure before the Oil and Gas Conservation Board of Alberta, which is hearing an application by Great Canadian Oil Sands, Inc., to build a plant on the sands. The four companies—Cities Service Athabasca, Imperial Oil, Ltd., Richfield Oil Corp., and Royalite Oil Co., —are intervening in the hearing. The Oil and Gas Conservation Board does not rule on applications, but makes recommendations to the Albert an government. Two years ago the board reported an application by Great Canadian Oil Sands unfavorably. The present hearing is a result of reapplication by the company. Although Cities Service Athabasca and the three other companies have intervened, the two groups are not competing for the same properties. They hold adjacent leases near the center of the sands. The Cities Service Athabasca group has been operating a research and development effort on the sands at Mildred Lake since 1957. The four
companies say they have spent $16.5 million on development efforts so far, plan to ask for a permit to begin commercial production later this year. The $250 million the companies plan to spend would include mining and processing equipment plus a 300-mile pipeline from a plant site at Mildred Lake to Edmonton to transport synthetic crude to the Interprovincial and Trans-Mountain pipelines. The four companies haven't disclosed complete details of their proposed project. However, they do say that a scale of operation approaching 100,000 barrels a day of liquid hydrocarbons would be required for economic operation. Their plan calls for the completion of a definite estimate for the project during 1964, at which time they would be ready to start construction. The companies estimate that it will take about four years to build the project. Production, they say, could start by the late 1960 , s.
One Pauling Libel Case Settled; Three Pending Dr. and Mrs. Linus Pauling have settled^ out of court their libel suit against the Bellingham (Wash.) Herald. Dr. Pauling says the paper's publisher paid them $16,000. The paper also printed a retraction, stating that it regrets publishing in late 1960 five letters to the editor containing untrue statements, which, if believed, would have reflected on Dr. Pauling's integrity and loyalty to the U.S. Meanwhile, Dr. Pauling has three other libel suits pending. Two suits— one against Hearst Publishing Co. and King Features Syndicate, Inc., for $1 million in damages, and the other against the New York Daily News, for $500,000 in damages—are in federal court in New York City. The third suit, against the St. Louis Globe Democrat for $300,000 in damages, is in the St. Louis federal court. Dr. Pauling claims the New York Daily News libeled him in an editorial in its Sept. 2, 1961, issue, the St. Louis paper in an editorial in its Oct. 24, 1960, issue. The case against Hearst and King Features is based on allegedly libelous matter contained in an article by Fulton Lewis, Jr., and published in the New York Mirror on April 20, 1961. Trial dates have not been set for any of the three suits.
Zero Tariffs Would Boost Organic Imports Imports could grab 10% of U.S. organic chemical market if tariffs are removed, ADL study says is aided by his practice of pricing exports on a marginal basis, that is, without providing for a full contribution to overhead and profit, Mr. Messing says. And, he adds, a European or Japanese producer has a product cost advantage over his U.S. counterpart to start with. ADL figures that investment costs abroad are typically 80 to 95% of what they are here, that prices of many key raw materials are equal to or lower than those in the U.S., that labor costs are only 30 to 50% of U.S. costs (including adjustments for productivity and labor benefits), and that marketing and administrative costs in Europe are less than in the U.S. About the only major cost element in which this country has the edge is energy, he claims. Here, U.S. costs are roughly 60 to 80% of charges abroad. Despite this, a producer in other areas can expect his total unit cost to be about 80 to 8 5 % of the U.S. cost. To underscore its findings, ADL compared manufacturing costs for 18 key organic chemicals and intermedi-
The Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association is on record as opposing the Administration's proposed Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Last week, Arthur D. Little, Inc., put some footings under SOCMA's platform. ADL estimates that, at a zero tariff level, organic chemical imports could capture 10% of U.S. annual sales, while dyes, flavoring, and perfume chemicals could grab an even larger share. What's more, organic end products, like vinyl raincoats or synthetic textile fabrics, could raise imports' share to 20% of the U.S. sales volume for organic chemicals. These estimates stem from an ADL study of the effect of tariffs on chemical imports. Shortly after President Kennedy announced his tariff program, SOCMA commissioned ADL to make the $35,000 study. Last week the results were made public at a SOCMA luncheon in New York by Richard F. Messing, ADL vice president. Even without elimination of U.S. tariffs, an overseas chemical producer
Removal of Tariffs on Chemicals Would Make Some Imported Organics Competitive with U.S. Products
Product
Estimated landed cost for imports (zero tariff)
U.S. manufacturing co st for integrated plants, including sales and administrative cjxpensea With ld%7eturn With 10% reon raw material turn on total investment investment ^rpntQ nAr n n n n r l ^ ^OCI l l o
METHANOL FORMALDEHYDE ACETYLENE DERIVATIVES Vinyl acetate monomer Polyvinyl chloride Trichloroethylene Acrylonitrile ETHYLENE DERIVATIVES Ethanol Ethylene dichloride Polyethylene (low pressure) Ethylene glycol Styrene monomer MISCELLANEOUS Phenol Phthalic anhydride Indigo Naphthol AS
9.2 8.7
\JKZI
YJ\JKJ\\\JJ
3.2
