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M A R K E T OF T H E
C REPORT M O N T H
DOMESTIC PRODUCERS
Oxo Alcohols
Amoco
Supply will continue to outstrip demand; domestic capacity slated to reach 670 million pounds in 1962
Dow Budische
Enjoy Chemical (Humble Oil Refining)
&
Gulf O i l
Monsanto O x o Chemicals (Amoco and Pittsburgh Chemical)
Texas Eastman
Tidewater—Air Products Union Carbide
OVERSEAS PRODUCERS Badische Imperial Chemical Industries Kuhlmann Montecatini Ruhrchemie (Rheinprussen)
The midyear price cuts in oxo alcohols are not apt to improve the apparently bad supply and demand situation. Most likely, the declines were made to curb or head off below list selling. Enjay Chemical led the downward plunge and was followed quickly by other producers. The new oxo alcohols listings now are (F.O.B. supply points): • Iso-octyl and decyl alcohol, 18 cents a pound, down from 21 cents. • Hexyl, 17 cents, down 2 cents a pound • Tridecyl 20 cents, off 4 cents from its previous listing. Meanwhile, Union Carbide dropped the 1/4 cent a pound differential for 2—ethylhexanol which competes with iso-octyl alcohol. It now sells for 18 cents a pound. The 2-ethyl material can be made by a combination of oxo process and aldol condensation, but it is usually produced from acetaldehyde. The new alcohol prices were promptly applied to plasticizers, the main use for oxo alcohols. The net result of the price change to oxo and plasticizer producers: lower profit margins with little prospects for an unusual increase in business. And the oxo business has other problems. Oxo production last year is estimated between 211 and 236 million pounds. About 111 million pounds was for iso-octyl, decyl, and tridecyl alcohols; the balance mostly for butyl and isobutyl alcohols. In the oxo process, an olefin reacts with carbon monoxide and hydrogen to produce an aldehyde with one more carbon atom; the aldehyde is then hydrogenated to an alcohol. The route is highly flexible, being a means to many alcohols, acids, and aldehydes, but thus far, the main use is for alcohol production. Total domestic oxo capacity by the end of 1961 should be 480 million pounds—quite beyond the current demand. But expansions planned or underway by Monsanto, Oxo Chemicals, Humble Oil (Enjay Chemical), and Tidewater-Air Products will raise this total to 670 million pounds by the end of 1962. There is little hope that oxo demands will be much beyond 300 to 325 million pounds by 1965, so a staggering excess capacity appears in the cards for oxo alcohols for many years to come. VOL. 53, NO. 7 · JULY 1961
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1 9 6 0 U.S. PRODUCTION
(Pounds)
Butyl and isobutyl alcohols 1 0 0 to 125 million
Decyl alcohol 5 0 Million
Iso-octyl alcohol 5 0 million
Tridecyl alcohol 4 million
REPORT
OF THE
The main use for oxo alcohols is to make plasticizers such as diiso-octyl phthalate and dibutyl phthalate. Mainly, plasticizers are used to add flexibility to poly(vinyl chloride) resins. PVC seems destined to grow at average annual rate of about 10% a year through 1965. PVC production should near 1.4 billion pounds then; it should be 950 million pounds this year. The average plasticizer use is about 1 pound of plasticizer to 2 pounds of vinyl resin. This means a plasticizer demand around 700 to 725 million pounds in 1965—410 million being phthalate types. Oxo alcohols are also used in synthetic lubricants and detergents. Roughly 10 million pounds of oxos are consumed annually in synthetic lubricant manufacture and modest growth is forecast through 1965. Detergents take around 3 million pounds of oxos annually and growth to 10 million pounds is possible by 1965. Oxo exports are believed quite sizable possibly running up to 100 million pounds a year now, and imports are expected to near 50 million pounds in 1961. The imports are coming from Imperial Chemical Industries in England and Kuhlmann in France. How long the export market will hold is questionable. European capacity is being expanded also, and by next year should be at least 425 million pounds. Supply and demand is reported in better balance overseas than in the U. S. Also, there are reports that an oxo plant may be built in Japan. Another problem facing oxo producers today is the trend to integration which threatens to dry up sales outlets in the U. S. For example, Monsanto plans to use the entire output from its proposed Chocolate Bayou, Texas, plant captively. Listed as a problem, too, is the possibility of straight chain alcohols moving in on oxo plasticizer markets. Oxos are branched chain materials, and straight chain alcohols are said to make better plasticizers.
DOMESTIC 0 X 0 ALCOHOL CAPACITIES Company
MONTH
Location
OVERSEAS 0 X 0 ALCOHOL CAPACITIES
Estimated Capacity, Millions of Pounds 1961 1962
Amoco
W o o d River, III.
12
12
Dow Badische
Freeport, Tex.
25
25
Enjay Chemical
Baton Rouge, La.
90
120
Gulf Oil
Port Arthur, Tex. Philadelphia, Pa.
12 30
12 36
O x o Chemicals
Haverhill, Ohio
0
Monsanto
Chocolate Bayou, Tex.
Texas Eastman
Company
Country
Estimated Capacity (Million Ibs./yr.)
Remarks
Badische
Germany
60
England
240
40
Imperial Chemical Industries
Expanding to 3 0 0 million pounds b y 1962
0
60
Kuhlmann
France
25
M a y be e x p a n d i n g
Montecatini
Italy
25
Longview, Tex.
125
125
Union C a r b i d e
Seadrift, Tex. Texas City, Tex.
180''
180''
Ruhrchemie
Germany
30
M a y be e x p a n d i n g to 4 5 million l b . / y r
Tidewater — Air Products
Delaware City, Del.
Societa EdisonUnion Carbide
Italy
0
Reported planning a 2 5 million-pound/ y e a r plant
0
" Total capacity for both plants.
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