MARKETS Phthalic: It's Tight Everywhere Story may be different w h e n Europeans complete new facilities — output here may pass 3 0 0 million lb. V I W I N G τ ο A TIGHT SUPPLV situation in
phthalic anhydride, producers here are none too happv over the foreign d e mand reaching them for t h e naphtha lene derivative. Our phthalic exports for 1955 threaten to double last year's shipments. They were 9,895,000 pounds during the first six months, while those for all of 1954 amounted to 11,324,000 pounds. At prevailing carload prices in domestic market the phthalic exports Citxrmg cîîc nrsï nail oi Ixzoo in have a dollar value of $1,979,000. Alkyd coating resin makers in Germany and Great Britain are the principal buyers, accounting for 70% of t h e American phthalic exports. A foreign market of this size ordinarily would b e a cause for much satisfaction, but i n the instance of phthalic anhydride i t may soon vanish. The movement, i n fact, may b e reversed in view of t h e plans under way in the European i n dustry to expand capacity. • American Tariff. For that reason, domestic interests believe, the foreign chemical manufacturers would like t o see the U. S. tariff rate on phthalic pared down materially. Producers here are frankly worried over the prospect of a large producing potential for phthalic abroad when the new facilities are completed. American duty on imported phthalic anhydride is 20% ad valorem plus 3 1 / 2 cents per pound, roughly equivalent t o 7 cents. T h e foreign product in recent years has ranged between 13 and 1 5 cents per p o u n d , compared with t h e uuui^^iuv. v . a n u a u p n v ; c KJÎ «£/V v-CTltS.
• C u r r e n t S h o r t a g e . Right now t h e European makers are sending us less phthalic anhydride than last year, d u e to t h e absence of exportable surpluses. O n t h e other hand they are shipping this country much more crude naphthalene, the r a w material they will n e e d in t h e future. For this w e have b e e n paying from 2 to 4 cents a pound. Imports of the crude have been more t h a n doubled, amounting to 62.1 million p o u n d s during the first half of t h e current year. During the same time in 1954 crude imports totaled 28.1 million pounds. This year, imports s u p 4684
C&EN
OCT.
3 1.
1955
piemen ted a domestic output during the first half of 208 million p o u n d s . T h e latter w a s u p 4 5 % over t h e first half of 1954. T h e s e large naphthalene imports indicate that even our present record production of t h e crude b y tar processors, steel mills, a n d other coke operations, is insufficient to meet its requirements today in either phthalic anhydride or refined naphthalene. • Refined Market. The refined hr= τηττη of Sake continues mHLt*ri=.!I to enjoy a large market as a household moth repellent, a n d is usually made from both domestic and imported crude. Some 71 million pounds of the refined flake were turned out in 1954, a n d 3 9 million were sold at an average unit cost of 9 cents. Last year two pounds of refined naphthalene were processed from im ported crude for every five pounds of refined from domestic crude. Dependency upon foreign supply sources for making refined naphthalene varies. Although our imports were d o u b l e d during t h e first six months this year, the a m o u n t brought in totaled only 801,000 pounds. • Phthalic Supplies.
D o m e s t i c pro
duction of phthalic anhydride this year may rise appreciably above 300 mil lion pounds. O u t p u t s during the January—june penov* were at an an nual rate of about 3 3 0 million pounds, including phthalic processed from oxylene. Production of the intermediate has doubled during the past 10 years, as seen from the following data compiled from Tariff Commission reports: (Pounds ) 125,820,000 112,746,000 137,467,000 158,827,000 149,697,000 216 5 206 5 000 248,042^000 228,576,000 226,646,000 253,847,000 164,677,000
1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 ( 6 months)
Actual production of phthalic anhy dride in 1955, estimated at 350 million pounds, is some 50 million pounds less *• •
• * •'
·. « ι ν . y
i. *_-£»«_»·
according to Alfred R. Powell of the Koppers Co. N a p h t h a l e n e production will b e in the neighborhood of 500 mil lion pounds, in contrast to the Paley report estimate of 7 0 0 million pounds. Reviewing t h e supply positions for benzene, phenol, styrene, naphthalene, and phthalic anhydride, before the re cent meeting of the American Coke and Coal Chemicals Institute, Powell said that Paley report somewhat overesti mated the growth of this group that has actually taken place in the past five years. Actual growth now appears to be 70 to 8 5 % of that forecast four years ago, except for naphthalene, where the increase is less than half of that pre dicted.
