INDUSTRY Plastics — Ticket to Chemical Growth Highlydiversified Borg-Warner moves toward greatly increased emphasis on plastics and chemiccls JCAITH: I N
T H E BOUNDLESS future
of
the plastics industry" is behind plans of Borg-Warner (1955 sales: $550 mil lion) to undertake a major expansion in the chemical and plastics field. Roy C . Ingersoll, board chairman and presi dent of Borg-Warner, said recently that the company has appropriated $ 1 0 mil lion for erection o£ a chemical plant a t Washington, W. Va. With an eye to t h e future, B-W has purchased a 322-acre site; of this only about half will b e required for t h e construction immediately planned. Through its Marbon Chemical Divi sion, Borg-Warner has been in the chemical field in a limited way for the past 2 0 years. (Sales of the chemical division currentiy account for only about 1% of total sales for the highly diversified B-W empire.) According t o Robert Shattuck, Marbon's president and general manager, t h e division has now "come of age" and is pushing into the most rapidly growing segment of t h e chemical industry. Sales of ther moplastics alone liave grown thirtyfivefold during t h e past 20 years, Shattuck observes, and some predic tions call for an additional expansion in t h e plastics industry of nearly 3000% within t h e next 2 0 years. " W e in Marbon Chemical and in Borg-Warner feel/' says Shattuck, "that the plastics industry today is in about t h e same position on t h e industry life curve as was the steel industry in 1880. Then— in 1880—there were horizons unlimited for steel. Today—in 1956—there are horizons unliniited for t h e chemicalplastics industry." While all facilities to b e built in the future at t h e new site in West Virginia may not b e devoted to the plastics field, the decision t o undertake the tre mendous expansion at this time was p r o m p t e d b y progress of Marbon's thermoplastic resin, Cycolac (C&EN, March 22, 1954). According t o Ingersoll, Cycolac has enjoyed a market acceptance "exceeding our highest ex pectations," with d e m a n d for t h e rela tively n e w material greatly surpassing the production capacity of Marbon's present t w o plants at Gary, Ind. Cycolac is t h e first product scheduled for production at t h e n e w West Virginia 1430
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plant, and will continue to represent a substantial fraction of its total activity. A sizable section of t h e plant will be devoted to facuities for process ing the resin into a w i d e variety of colors. It is a h i g h impact thermoplastic, polymerized from butadiene, styrene, a n d acrylonitrile; at least 60 items of industrial or consumer interest using it are already in production. The res in's wide temperature range, coupled with retention of high impact strength at all practical temperatures, has led to its use in t h e manufacture of such diverse end products as beverage dis pensers, bowling pins, radio-TV cabi nets, hose nozzles, l a w n sprinklers, pipes and fittings, a n d various auto motive components. Marbon w a s engaged for many years in the research which led to Cycolac. I n the past year, most of t h e division's efforts h a v e b e e n devoted t o market trials t o evaluate the material's useful ness in consumer products. These market studies, a n d the quick accept ance of the material in m a n y applica tions promising sizable volume, con vinced Marbon's and Β org-Warner's management d i a t expansion was in order. Capacity at the n e w plant will b e more t h a n 10 times t h e division's previous total capacity for resin produc tion. But "While it is indicated that Cycolac resin will receive ever increas ing market acceptance," Shattuck ob serves, "this acceptance does n o t neces sarily occur at t h e expense of existing plastics. T h e u n i q u e properties of Cycolac lend themselves t o a n expand ing range of n e w uses not n o w filled by other plastic materials." The new p l a n t site at Washington is i n the Parkersburg area, a section mak ing notably r a p i d strides as a growing chemical center. T h e area is near the weighted center of indicated markets for Β org-Warner's resinous products, a n d also is well supplied w i t h process water. B - W acreage, almost entirely flat, boasts 3500 feet of river frontage along the Ohio. Rail a n d highway facilities also a r e available for ship ments to a n d from t h e p l a n t . River transportation of materials i s seen as a money-saving possibility for the
future, but it is not included in t h e company's immediate pians. Following installation of t h e Cycolac processing section, t h e n e w plant will b e extended to include rubber resin a n d other facilities. Marbon got its start i n rubber resins, a n d considers itself a pioneer in t h e polymerization a n d synthetic resins field. Target date for completion of t h e Washington plant is January 1 9 5 7 . This major increase in company's activ ity in the chemical field, according to Ingersoll, is an important p a r t of Β org-Warner's over-all program of ex pansion a n d diversification. "Despite t h e great increase in the sales of syn thetic resins and plastics during postWorld W a r I I years," Ingersoll o b serves, "we believe the surface of t h e market h a s barely been scratched. Plastics have b e c o m e a p a r t of our pattern of living. These are some of t h e reasons w h y Borg-Warner, w h i c h is a 'growth corporation,', is p r o u d t o b e c o m e increasingly identified with a 'growth industry.'"
More Perchloroethylene Diamond Alkali plans to expand perchloroethylene production a t its Deer Park plant near Houston to nearly double present capacity. D i a m o n d ex pects this expansion to b e completed b y next January, since design a n d en gineering phases are already nearly finished. Construction will start i n t h e immediate future. This project, to b e located in a n e w area of t h e plant, will b e laid out to provide for future expansion of t h e chlorinated products division's activi ties, b o t h by increasing t h e capacity of t h e present products a n d the addi tion of n e w units for n e w products as they are developed. In addition to necessary equipment, supporting units,, a n d connecting field lines for process a n d p o w e r purposes, t h e n e w installation will include a n e w office building, laboratory, and ware h o u s e . Barge loading facilities "will also b e built so t h a t products of t h e n e w unit will h a v e advantage of water transportation. Another phase of Diamond's expan sion program provides for installation of n e w equipment a n d supporting facilities for producing ethylene dichloride. Elsewhere, Diamond is increasing p r o d u c t i o n of 2,4-D at N e w a r k a n d D e s Moines, a n d D D T at Greens Bayou, near Houston; installing n e w m e t h a n e purification u n i t a t Belle, W . Va.; and adding facilities for Chlorowax a t Painesville, Ohio.
