Status Quo for SBR

But the Attorney Genera l sees signs that more com­petition may be developing

C O M P E T I T I O N in the synthetic rubber

industry presented a rather static pic­ture last year, with no startling changes from 1957 (C&EX, Aug. 25, 1958, page 21) . However, some develop­ments seem to indicate that competi­tion is getting keener, but it will take another year's operations to determine whether these tendencies are reliable indicators of more widespread com­petition.

So says Attorney General William P. Rogers in his fourth annual report on competition in the synthetic rubber in­dustry. Under the terms of sale of the government-owned synthetic rub­ber plants to industry, the Attorney General must report to Congress each year on the state of competition in the new industry.

Add a complicating factor: the re­cession. As a result of the business decline, SBR (styrene butadiene rub­ber) producers operated their plants at 62.6S of capacity in 1958 compared to 66.2T"r in the previous year. How­ever, the production cutback during an existing buyers' market had no seri­ous effect on any company's ability to compete, Mr. Rogers says.

The big companies—Goodyear, Fire­stone, and Goodrich-Gulf—retained their commanding positions in the in­dustry but showed no real gains dur­ing the year. On the contrary, smaller companies showed real competitive strength in the face of slackened de­mand: "They more than held their own with the giants in obtaining a share of the diminishing market." And new companies made favorable prog­ress in their first full year of operation.

Butadiene producers did not fare so well. As demand slackened, integrated SBR producers used butadiene from captive plants. Independent SRR pro­ducers restricted butadiene purchases to plants located near SBR plants. Re­sult: The market in butadiene con­tracted sharply.

As for butyl rubber, Mr. Rogers sees little chance for competition. Both butyl plants are owned by members of the Jersey Standard corpuiute family. For a time it looked as though new pro­ducers would get into the field, but plans coIl?.A sed. According to Mr. Rogers, the butyl market will have to

expand considerably before any new company considers entering the field.

• Bright Spots. One effect of the recession was to intensify the buyers* market for SBR. As a result, stiff com­petition stiffened among SBR producers in providing improved quality rubber, better packaging, and more technical service. And small rubber fabricators tended to choose from more suppliers in obtaining their requirements.

For the first time since the survey began, there were no complaints of shortages of any kind of synthetic rub­ber—even temporary shortages—at any time in the reporting years, Mr. Rogers says. All companies queued believed that they had been able to obtain a fair share of synthetic rubber at a fair price.

However, Mr. Rogers points out, the strong buyers' market in the past two years makes it impossible to find out how small business would be treated in a different business climate. "There is, as yet, no indication of how small fabricators might fare in this industry, with its close ties to the Big Five tire companies, should rubber demand over­take or surpass productive capacity of the industry.

Another bright spot is the increased number of new rubber types. The biggest increase is in the number of black masterbatches and oil-black mas-terhatches. The increase in number of types tends to break up the pattern of plant specialization inherited from the days of government operation; more producers now offer a full line of poly­mer types. For example, in 1957 only three producers offered cold rubber— oil-black masterbatch. Last year all but two of the major producers had en­tered this field.

And there are signs that competition is beginning to develop on the West Coast. During tne rirsi lew years àiter the government-owned plants were sold, Shell Chemical—the only producer in the area-handled 80 to 90c'< of all West Coast sales. In 1958 this figure dropped to 59.5'r as outside producers claimed a bigger share of the market. One sign that points to stiffer compe­tition in this area, Mr. Rogers says, is that most producers east of the Rockies have abolished price differentials added to West Coast sales to cover the extra cost of shipping. Thus, other pro­ducers are in a better position to m .itch Shell's prices. Although all signs look favorable, Mr. Rogers says it is still too soon to tell whether real competition has developed on the West Coast.

W Deposition Perfected Tungsten meta l is extracted from tungsten hexafluoride and formed into simple shapes

JVLissiLE a n d rocket science takes a step forward as the U. S. Bureau of Mines* Rolf o, Mo., metallurgy research center unveils a new tungsten deposi­tion process. It is a refinement of low temperature? vapor deposition. Pure tungsten ni-etal is extracted from a mix­ture of tui-agsteii hexafluoride and hy­drogen giises and simultaneously formed into simple shapes. The proc­ess also should make it possible to plate high-purity- tungsten onto various sur­faces— such, as rocket nose cones, motor walls, and nozzles, \vhere its ultrahigh melting point (6170° F.) and high hardness arid corrosion resistance would be very desirable, says the bureau.

In the new process, tungsten hexa­fluoride Lund hydrogen gases are pumped through a copper tube, heated to about 1 100 F . This is hot enough to make tHe tungsten drop out of the gas stream as metal. Impurities do not respond tcj> this temperature and thus remain in t:he gas that passes out of the tube.

The tun gstcn metal builds up on the walls of tJhe copper tube. When the tungsten reaches a desired thickness, the procès-s is s topped and the copper stripped off, leaving the high-purity (much better than 99.99',* ) tungsten in tube form. T h e bureau has given samples o f the tubes to several indus­trial research \ ;boratories for testing. If the results are favorable, the process should be stepped up to a larger scale, the bureau feels.

Vapor deposition of tungsten onto surfaces bus been studied for some time. The Bureau of Mines and the National Bureau of: Standards have been doing parallel development work on it (NBS had been studying chlorides as starting materials until about February 1959), and industrial companies, such as Alloyd Research, have also been work­ing on the technique. [Alloyd says the bureau's irungsten deposition process is basically ^he same as the one it has been using to deposit chromium, tungsten, and molybdenum coatings (C&EN, May 25, jjage 5 0 ) , except for the start­ing materials.]

Resultr a process that yields tung­sten coatings with superior adherence and freedom from contamination and porosity.

2 4 C & E N OCT. 5. 1959