mance than that for total manufacturing, where 9% of the companies had liabilities greater than 20%, and 5% of the firms had liabilities greater than 30% in 1979. In 1978,11% of the companies had unfunded vested liabilities greater than 20%, with 6% having liabilities greater than 30%. On the other hand, 29% of the chemical companies surveyed in 1979 had no unfunded vested liabilities in 1979, compared to 28% in 1978. For all manufacturing in 1979, 28% had no unfunded vested liabilities in 1979 compared to 25% in 1978. In a separate survey of pension plans among 40 chemical companies, Price Waterhouse, the accounting firm, found that 21 or 52.5% of the chemical companies that it surveyed had no unfunded vested liabilities. Unlike the Johnson & Higgins survey, the Price Waterhouse study disclosed the percentage at each company. Price Waterhouse finds that of the chemical companies that it studied, Du Pont has the greatest unfunded vested liabilities as a percentage of net worth at 14.8%. This is followed by PPG Industries at 9.6%. Yet another new pension plan study specifically for chemical com-
panies is the ACS report, "Summary of Retirement Benefits" (C&EN, Dec. 8, page 66). It is concerned more with specific plan provisions rather than the financial standing of plans. The strength of funding of pensions is shown in another way by the Johnson & Higgins study. The insurance firm says that pension plan assets as a percentage of total vested and nonvested past service liabilities is generally in good shape. For manufacturing as a whole, average plan assets equaled about 69% of average total past service liabilities in 1979. The percentage was the same for the chemical companies studied. Of the total manufacturing firms surveyed, however, 19% had plan assets equal to less than 50% of past service liabilities. For the chemical companies studied, only 5% had plan assets equal to less than 50% of total past service liabilities. Johnson & Higgins concludes that the statistics that it has drawn up "point up the undeniable truth that most large corporate pension plans are, on average, well funded, that they are not a huge drain on corporate profits, and that they will be able to pay promised benefits." D
Specialty firm starts up production lab" A $1.5 million, 7500-sq-ft "production laboratory" has been opened at Dan vers, Mass., by Alfa Products, a unit of Thiokol Corp.'s Ventron division. The laboratorylike facility triples Alfa's capacity to produce specialty and laboratory chemicals, according to general manager Roger S. Locke, and permits further expansion in organic chemicals. Alfa's former "production laboratory" at Beverly, Mass., will be taken over by other specialty chemical units of Ventron after renovation. Alfa currently repackages and synthesizes about 7000 organic and inorganic chemicals and pure elements for laboratory use, specialty chemical manufacture, and electronic circuit fabrication. The firm also is distributor for ultrapure compounds, elements, and fabricated metals of Johnson Matthey Chemicals (Royston, England) and ion exchange resin products of Rohm & Haas. Alfa makes about 300 of the 6000 organic chemicals it sells and almost all of the 1000 or so inorganic chemicals. Locke will not reveal Alfa's sales but notes that sales have grown about 25% yearly for the past five years. He ascribes this strong growth to having established the company in such specialized areas as organophosphorus compounds. Other factors include an increasing tendency for scientists
and firms to buy rather than make needed chemicals, and the influence of chemical waste disposal regulations, which lead customers to buy only the small amounts actually needed. Alfa will use the expanded space of the new Danvers facility to increase the number of organic compounds it makes. New organic candidates for synthesis will come both from scanning of chemical literature by Alfa research chemists and from the firm's continual re-evaluation of availability and prices from other suppliers. In addition to bench-top space, the Danvers plant is equipped with 50 walk-in hoods, each fitted with a fire-suppressant system. Even sinks at ends of benches are enclosed in hoods. Technical manager Stephen A. Fine emphasizes that hoods are used as safety backup, and that minimal amounts of vapor are vented to the outside air. Alfa contracts with a disposal firm to cart away coproduced wastes. The facility has no storage capacity for solvents or starting materials. These will be brought several hundred yards from Alfa's warehouse elsewhere on the property in amounts actually needed. Alfa also has a semiworks facility at the site capable of custom synthesis of organic chemicals in amounts up to 500 lb. D
CHECKOFF NEW PLANTS • Industrial gases. Amerigas Inc., subsidiary of UGI Corp., plans to build 100 ton-per-day air separation plant in Dickinson, N.D. First stage, to cost $1.8 million, will be completed in 12 months with capacity of 35 tons per day of liquid nitrogen for use by oil and gas producers in Williston Basin area; second stage, to cost $1.5 million, will raise nitrogen capacity to 65 tons per day and oxygen to 35 tons per day. In another project, Amerigas plans to build 120 ton-per-day liquid carbon dioxide plant in Billings, Mont. Completion date set for August 1981; cost to be $2.6 million. Union Carbide's Linde division plans to build two air separation plants producing oxygen, nitrogen, and argon. At Garland, Tex., combined 180 ton-per-day unit will bring total capacity there to 470 tons per day; scheduled to start up in first-quarter 1982. Second plant near Denver will have initial capacity of 350 tons per day. To cost $15 million, plant slated to start up in 1982. • Iodine. Calabrian International Corp. plans to build 3 million lb-per-year plant at undisclosed location, based on technology of Ise Chemical Industries of Japan. On completion in 1982, plant will make company a producer as well as marketer of element, which is expected to find increasing use in catalysts for production of synfuels and chemicals from synthetic gas.
PLANTS COMPLETED • Carbon dioxide. Airco has put on stream $4 million plant in Cherokee, Ala., with capacity of 300 tons per day. • Mineral oils, Witco Chemical has expanded capacities of its plants in Gretna, La., and Petrolia, Pa., 25% each and added 25% to petroleum sulfonates capacity at Gretna at cost of $4 million. • Neopentyl glycol· Badische's plant at Freeport, Tex., with annual capacity of 25 million lb has started up; capacity may be expanded later to 35 million lb.
Dec. 22, 1980 C&EN
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