Company Working On Carbide Economies

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30076, 9 March 1963, Page 15

Company Working On Carbide Economies

The Will .as anj Davies construction Company says it is well aware that if a calcium carbide-polyvinyl chloride plant were established in New Zealand it would have to be on a sound economic basis. It would not be interested in establishing the plant on •ny other basis, says the company in a statement in replying to comments by Mr H C. Urlwin, ' managing director of H. C. Urlwin Ltd., e.ectrtcal manufacturer, and Mr C. G. Martin, a consulting chemical engineer. Mr Urlwin said: “If New Zealand wants another uneconomic industry hung round the taxpayers' necks it should go ahead with the proposed calcium carbide-poly-vinyl chloride plant.” Because of “tremendous" international competition there was no chance of exporting polyvinyl chloride ' p.v.c.) without a subsidy of at least 50 per cent. Mr Urlwin said.

“The management of my firm could quite easily spend all day, every day, with people who ask us for interviews to try and sell us the stuff,” he said "How can New Zealand expect to sell in the face of competition like that? “If New Zealand could manufacture p.v.c. at only twice the price it costs us to import it, the local industry would be doing well.”

There was “no prospect whatever” of New Zealand being able to use all the p.v.c. internally, because there was not the market. The establishment of a plant turning out high-cost p.v.c. in New Zealand would have a harmful effect on industries using the material. “We are being told New Zealand industry should export but we can do this only if our product is competitive. We cannot possibly export if the internal economic policy compels us to buy raw materials from a local industry at a price well above world values.”

Mr Martin supported Mr Urlwin's views, the international price of p.v.c. polymer had been dropping steadily because of overproduction, he said, and it was now possible to buy from certain producers, notably Italy and Japan, at Is Id to Is 2d a lb. British and American prices were about Is 4d a lb. A few years ago the price was about 3s or 4s a lb, he said.

According to Mr Martin, the only practicable use for calcium carbide is in making acetylene and the main use for acetylene is for p.v.c. An old process by which nitrogenous fertilisers were manufactured from calcium cyanamide made from carbide had been almost completely displaced by manufacture from ammonia, he said. Acetylene was used as a fuel, but overseas this use was being superseded by fuels from petroleum-refineries. As the Whangarei refinery came into production he thought carbide acetylene would tend to be displaced by petroleumderived fuels.

The main use of acetylene was in making plastics and chemicals, particularly p.v.c., and to a lesser extent polyvinyl acetate (p.va.) was used in making paint and had other relatively minor applications. Mr Martin doubted the economic viability of the proposed production of calcium carbide. The international price of carbide had been falling steadily, and recent American chemical engineering journals assessed the price for large quantities of the Gulf Coast of North America as little more than £26 a ton.

Yet according to Che best information he could gather, the likely production on the West Coast of New Zealand was more like £35 or £4O a ton.

The statement from Wilkins and Davies said: “We have previously stated that in an operation of this complexity there are many factors to consider in order to ascertain the economic feasibility of the project. All these factors must be evaluated carefully before a decision is reached, and this is what Wilkins and Davies is doing.”