• CQUCEUTPATES

INDUSTRY

More evidence of the slowing pace of chemical industry investment in new plant and equip­ment is provided by latest figures from the Department of Commerce. In its most recent quarterly survey of capital investment, the department pegs chemical industry spending for all of 1968 at $2.78 billion. This is down from the $2.82 billion the department was predicting in its June survey and the $2.84 it was expecting in its March report. The new figure is also well below the $2.88 billion the industry spent last year. The expected decline from 1967 is in line with a recent C&EN spot check (C&EN, Sept. 9, page 19) which revealed that 16 major chemical makers are planning to invest a total of $1.91 billion this year compared with $2.01 billion in 1967.

More sulfur may become available in Mexico to add to the growing list of new world supplies. Compania San Noe, S.A. de C.V., owned 34% by Pan American Sulphur of Houston, Tex., and 66% by Mexicans, has found an area of sulfur which is at depths capable of being mined by the Frasch process. As a result of this exploratory program, San Noe has received 9500 acres from the Mexi­can Commission of Mining Development to go with its other concessions which total about 30,000 acres. Much more exploration is needed to determine the extent and continuity of the sulfur deposits and whether they can be mined commercially, according to Pan American Sulphur.

The oversupply and low price of ammonia continue to hurt some chemical companies. Allied Chemical will permanently close three of the four ammonia units in its South Point, Ohio, plant. The plant has had a capacity of 300,000 tons a year out of Allied's total of 1.2 million tons a year. Losses from write-oif of the three units will cut $6 million from Allied's third-quarter net income. In the third quarter of 1967, the company had net income of $14 million.

3M Co. will make, use, and sell polyimide films and coatings under patent license agreements with Du Pont. The agreements also include use and sale by 3M of compo­sitions convertible to polyimides. F. A. Blankenbaker, division general manager of 3M's dielectric materials and systems division, says that 3M also expects to continue its own research on the thermally stable materials and to make developments of its own in the field.

Ethyl Corp. plans to sell Albermarle Paper Co., Interstate Bag Co., Inc., and all of the capital stock of Halifax Timber Co. to Hoerner Waldorf Corp. for about $55 mil­lion in cash. Sales of the three Ethyl subsidiaries were about $63 million in 1967. Ethyl remains a major factor in quality paper through its Oxford Paper division. The acquisition gives Hoerner entry into kraft paper lin-erboard, and bag markets east of the Appalachians. Albemarle originally acquired all of the stock of Ethyl Corp. in 1962 from Standard Oil ( N.J. ) and General Motors.

Shale oil developers were offered another temptation from Interior last week. Secretary of the Interior Udall announced selection of three sites for competitive bidding on test leases of federal shale oil lands in Colorado. The three sites—each representing a distinctly different problem of extracting the oil-rich resource—are all in the Piceance Creek Basin of Rio Blanco County in northwestern Colorado. Each contains enough reserves of shale oil to supply a commercial plant long enough for the investment to be amortized, Udall said. ( For more on shale oil, see page 17. )

SEPT. 16, 1968 C&EN 23