GEORGE B. KRANTZ
I/EC
JOHN T. COX, Jr. Washington, D. C
ANNUAL
REVIEW
RUBBER HE BIG NEWS of the
American
T synthetic rubber industry in 1956 can be summed u p in one word— "expansion." During the 18 months that the industry has been in private hands, expansions in plant capacity have been going forward at a rapid rate. By the end of the year, total installed capacity to produce S-type polymer stood at 1.03 million long tons, an increase of 2 0 . 6 % over the production capacity at the time the plants were sold. Nor is the end in sight. W h e n expansions and new plant construction now under way are completed late in 1957, capacity to produce S-typc polymer will reach the astounding total of 1.27 million long tons annually. This represents a 5 0 % increase over capacity at the time of the plant sale and a 2 3 % increase over the capacity in 1956. T o produce all this synthetic rubber requires a tremendous in crease in monomer supply. Expan sions in petroleum butadiene pro duction capacity have been keeping step with increases in copolymer production capacity. By the end of 1957, scheduled expansions and new plant construction will bring the butadiene production capacity up to 1.04 million short tons, an increase of 7 3 % over the capacity at the time the plants were sold to industry. Styrene, the other mono mer essential to the production of S-type rubber, is in ample supply. In fact, scheduled expansions in this field were severely curtailed in view of the supply picture.
Most of the decline can be attrib uted to the drop in new automobile production. However, the con sumption of new rubber in 1956 was the second highest on record. During the year, the ratio of syn thetic to natural rubber consumed remained remarkably steady. Vari ations from the pattern of 6 0 % syn thetic a n d 4 0 % natural were meas ured in fractions of 1 % . T h u s it seems as though the American rubber industry has settled on 4 0 % as the m i n i m u m amount of natural rubber it will use. But how long this 60/40 synthetic-natural ratio will remain constant is a moot question. Viewed against a back drop of rising synthetic inventories and continued high prices for natu ral, the constancy of the 60/40 ratio assumes added significance. O n e conclusion that can be drawn from this performance is that the rubber industry is using the mini m u m amount of natural rubber re quired to maintain quality in finished products. If this is true, then a long-continued spread in price be tween natural and synthetic will stimulate research to develop syn thetics that can be used in applica tions where natural holds the edge for reasons of quality. O n the other hand, natural r u b ber producers think that continua tion of this constant consumption ratio will give them time to develop
Consumption Pattern Holds Steady Total consumption of new rub ber, both natural and synthetic, amounted to 1.43 million long tons in 1956. This is a drop of 100,000 tons from the all-time record of 1.53 million tons established in 1955. 38 A
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
• For further information, circle number 37 A on Readers' Service Card, page 139 λ
stiff competition for synthetic. T h e y are actively working on replanting schemes designed to increase the yield per acre and provide effective price competition with synthetic. In addition, rubber growers are switching their research effort away from the fundamental and arc con centrating heavily on development work for specific end-product a p plications. In the European market, natural rubber met more competition from synthetic. As a result of a greatly stepped-up sales campaign, Ameri can synthetic rubber producers ex ported slightly over 100,000 tons of S-type polymer in 1956—an alltime high. In 1955, exports amounted to 60,000 tons, and a mere 11,000 tons the year before. How ever, the size of this market may shrink when synthetic rubber plants now under construction in various European countries get into pro duction. Even with greatly increased ex ports, stocks of S-type polymer con tinued to rise during the year. At the end of 1956, stocks of S-type polymer in the United States stood at approximately 170,000 tons, high est in history. Reason for this is that consumption and exports have consistently r u n behind production. If this pattern continues in 1957, the rubber industry may face a choice of cutting back synthetic
production or reducing tion of natural rubber.
consump-
G o v e r n m e n t Still Has Problems
Ever since the synthetic rubber plants were sold to industry, the Attorney General has been keeping a watchful eye on competition in the industry. Analyzing the first year's operations, the Attorney General concluded that the competitive performance of the new private synthetic r u b b e r industry has been good. Some potential trouble spots are the tendency toward price inflexibility and the tendency to continue the pattern of product specialization that existed when the G o v e r n m e n t operated all the plants as an integrated unit. Small business is faring well at the hands of the synthetic r u b b e r producers. D u r i n g the survey period, more synthetic was shipped to small business t h a n the a m o u n t committed by the plant sale contracts. Small business had few complaints about synthetic procurement and a significant n u m b e r of small companies found private enterprise superior to government operation. Still creating disposal problems were the two synthetic rubber p r o p erties still in government hands—the alcohol butadiene plant at Louisville, and the rubber laboratories at Akron. As its final act before dissolution, the R u b b e r Producing Facilities Disposal Commission negotiated sale of the alcohol butadiene plant to Union Carbide. T h e plant is now operated by Publicker Industries u n d e r a lease which expires in April 1958. However, the Attorney General disapproved the proposed sale, and the sale was finally killed by action of the House. Now the Federal Facilities Corp., taking over the work of the Disposal Commission, is attempting to lease the plant on a long-term basis. At the end of the year F F C was attempting to work out a lease with two bidders, U n i o n Carbide and Publicker Industries. However, final approval of any leasing a r r a n g m e n t still rests with Congress. T h e laboratories at Akron have been shut down since J u n e 30. This is in line with the National Science Foundation's policy of de-emphasizing rubber research as such and concentrating on fundamental research on high polymers. Special legislation turned disposal of the labora-
tories over to the General Services Administration. U n d e r special rules laid down in the law, GSA must solicit bids from all government agencies interested in taking over the labs, before inviting bids from industry. At the end of the year, GSA and the Bureau of the Budget were mulling over the bids received from 26 government agencies. All indications point to Agriculture as having the inside track. Next move, which will probably take place early in 1957, is to solicit bids for the labs from industry. W h e t h e r the labs will be sold to industry or transferred to another government agency depends on which bid will bring the highest return to the Government. Developments and D i l e m m a s
N o spectacular advances in fund a m e n t a l rubber research were reported in 1956. But attention was focused on the tire performance of two polymers, «i-isoprene a n d Butyl. T h e performance of «i-isoprene (synthetic " n a t u r a l " ' rubber) in large-size truck tires m a y herald the day when the United States will be completely independent of overseas rubber. Both Firestone's Coral r u b b e r and Goodrich's Ameripol SN were tested in military truck tires by A r m y O r d n a n c e at C a m p Bullis, Tex. According to reports, the cisisoprene tires proved to be superior to standard military tires in tread wear, tire life, and resistance to tread cutting. Performance like this plus continued high prices for natural could speed the day when largescale production of m-isoprene could be competitively feasible. But there is a large roadblock standing in the way of commercial development of m-isoprene. T h e r e is no large scale monomer supply. T o make the reaction go, isoprene of fantastically high purity is required. This means that every pound of commercial isoprene used must be specially purified. T o make «V-isoprene a commercial success, a source of high-purity isoprene must be developed or the reaction must be modified so that commercial grade isoprene is usable. Big news in Butyl rubber was the development of the first successful Butyl tire. A big factor in the development of the tire was the availability of Monsanto's new chemical modifier, Elastopar. This corn-
Workmen move new 5 0 - f o o t styrene stripping column into place at Firestone's Lake Charles, La., synthetic rubber plant. Expansions, scheduled for completion in 1 9 5 7 , will make this the largest synthetic rubber plant in the country
pounding ingredient permits normal processing a n d still minimizes the tendency of Butyl tires to develop excessive heat due to road shock. T h e new tires are undergoing vigorous road tests, but no results are available as yet. Some testers indicate the Butyl tires are inferior to S-type polymer in tread w e a r ; others say they are superior. At this writing, it looks as though tread wear on the Butyl tire m a y be equivalent to that obtained with S-type polymer. But w h a t about the supply of Butyl rubber, should the new tires prove completely successful? Present production capacity could supply only a fraction of the d e m a n d , should tire makers decide to build Butyl tires. Yet construction of new Butyl plants faces two obstacles : (1) the heavy investment required per ton of Butyl production capacity, and (2) the tremendous investment industry now has in plants producing S-type polymer, which is perfectly satisfactory for tires. Developments should be interesting. VOL. 49, NO. 1
•
JANUARY 1957
39 A
