Magnesium pig at Dow Eight straight years of growth

Rayon cord consumption, on the other hand, is expected to be down this year to 190 million pounds, or 40% of the market, compared with 212 mil­lion pounds last year. Rayon tire cord consumption is expected to decline fur­ther to 175 million pounds next year, equal to 33% of the total market. Ny­lon cord consumption will rise slightly next year to 290 million pounds, with gains coming in the replacement tire market. But because of the growth of the total tire market, nylon's percent­age penetration will remain steady at 54%.

Rayon cord makers, who had been gambling heavily on Dynacor to give them additional staying power in the OE market, are now hedging this bet. FMC's American Viscose division, a leading rayon tire cord maker, has just announced that it will have a polyester capacity of 30 million pounds per year by next March; a third of this will be in polyester filament which can be used to make tire cord. Both other major rayon makers, American Enka and Beaunit, are expanding rapidly in polyester as well as nylon.

Likely to keep the longer-range tire cord picture cloudy for some time is the prospect of the adoption of the radial-ply tire by auto makers. De­troit is becoming receptive to the ra­dial tire concept. All radial tires made in this country use rayon cord. Ap­parently U.S. tire makers are in no hurry to develop a substantial rayon radial-ply tire capacity until they learn to what extent nylon or polyester cord can invade this market.

Magnesium shipments up 15% The U.S. magnesium industry will ship close to 100,000 tons of the light metal in 1966. This will be the highest total since the Korean war and a more than 15% jump over last year. 1966 repre­sents the eighth straight year of pro­duction gains for the industry, which consists largely of Dow Chemical.

Production in 1966 will likely be close to 80,000 tons. This compares to the 1965 12-year high of more than 81,000 tons. Next year production should spurt to some 95,000 tons— again the highest since the Korean war.

The Vietnam war is the major rea­son for the current surge in magne­sium. Dow estimates that 20,000 tons of the metal will be used for military purposes this year. But, at the same time, Dow is expressing its confidence in the long-term growth of the metal by making plans for a brand new mag­nesium plant to be on stream by 1970-71.

Magnesium has acquired a reputa­tion for being something of a military

metal. Production peaked at 184,000 tons in 1943 and again at 106,000 tons in 1952. But the metal has recently been making steady progress in other areas. Shipments increased from 34,-000 tons per year to 75,000 tons per year in the peacetime years from 1958 to 1964, for instance.

Biggest growth has come in non­structural uses. These now take some 7 1 % of magnesium used domesti­cally—up from 62% five years ago. Biggest single application is as an al­loying material with aluminum. This use alone took 26,000 tons last year. Other potential growth areas for mag­nesium are in die casting, for making ductile iron, and as a reducing agent in making titanium and other high-cost metals.

To meet the increased demand ex­pected over the next three or four years both Dow and the Alamet divi­sion of Calumet & Hecla, the only other domestic producer, are boosting output of their existing plants.

The Alamet plant in Selma, Ala., makes the metal by thermal reduction of dolomite. Alamet's current produc­tion rate for primary magnesium is about 7200 tons per year. This will be boosted to 9000 tons per year by the end of 1966.

Dow is just completing modernizing part of its plant in Freeport, Tex. This will increase production rate by 20,000 tons per year to 95,000 tons per year by early next year (C&EN, Nov. 14, page 38) . And a new project to reac­tivate and modernize half of the com­pany's still idle capacity will give Dow the capacity to make magnesium at a rate of 120,000 tons per year by some­time in 1968. Dow says capacity of its Freeport facility could reach 150,-000 tons per year if it were all reacti­vated and modernized. The plant makes magnesium by the electrolysis of magnesium chloride obtained from sea water.

Plans for new U.S. magnesium

plants beyond the existing Alamet and Dow units are still fuzzy. Several companies are talking about building such plants but nobody is yet com­mitted.

Dow itself could be the first to move. The company says it will need a new plant within four or five years. Sev­eral sites are being considered. One is the Great Salt Lake region of Utah. Dow has an option on magnesium chlo­ride brines to be produced from a pro­posed Lithium Corp. of America plan to recover potash and other salts from the lake. But so far LCA and its Ger­man partner Saltzdetfurth, A.G., are not firmly committed to go ahead with the scheme—although LCA president Harry D. Feltenstein says pilot opera­tions this year have been "extremely successful."

Another possible builder of the next U.S. magnesium plant is the partner­ship of National Lead, Hooker Chemi­cal, and H-K Corp. This group is also endeavoring to exploit the resources of the Great Salt Lake. Over $3 million has been spent on development work to extract magnesium and other salts from the lake and on the pilot produc­tion of magnesium and chlorine. A go/no-go decision on building a com­mercial salt extraction plant and a magnesium metal plant will probably come within six months.

Among other possible new primary magnesium producers is Kaiser Alu­minum. In 1964 the company bought Standard Magnesium and Chemical Co., a secondary magnesium producer. Standard Magnesium said in 1963 that it would build a 10,000 ton-per-year magnesium plant in the Portland-Van­couver area (C&EN, Dec. 2, 1963, page 21) . But nothing ever came of the plan. However, Kaiser has been doing research and development work on magnesium production. A decision to build or not build a plant to make magnesium metal could come early next year.

NOV. 28, 1966 C&EN 23