MARKETS Soviet Bloc Imports Fall
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Exports to U. S. market have been falling off since 1956 — U. S. production dropped during First half
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( J X E RESULT of t h e industrial recession here has been to curtail imports of ben zene, tbe bulk of which is supplied b y the Iron Curtain countries. Benzene arrivals from these sources for all of 1958 may amount to a little more than one half of the quantity imported in 1957 when the total was around 52 mil lion gallons. In 1956 the benzene im ports, again mostly from the Soviet Bloc nations, were about 65 million gallons. The recent 5-cent slash in domestic benzene to 31 cents a gallon, coke-oven and petroleum, is not expected to affect the imports, in either volume or price. Current import price is 26 cents a gal lon. T h e foreign nitration benzene must be blended, however, which brings tbe cost u p to 28 cents, still 3 cents a gallon below domestic. Consumers this year did not step on each others' toes in a scramble to get benzene for styrene, phenol, and gen eral chemical processing. Domestic benzene supply in 1957 was 332 mil lion gallons, and in 1956 it was 3 3 7 million, reflecting the drop in steel o p erations. These figures include pro duction by coke oven and petroleum plants as well a s benzene processed from imported crude materials. Domestic benzene output dropped almost 229c during the first five months of 1958, totaling 114 million gallons compared with 146 million gallons for the January-May period in 1957. T h e monthlv results:
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