American Cyanamid business

In the 1980s manufacturing capacity for aniline underwent some major changes. It is estimated that aniline capacity utilization was about 50% of nameplate capacity when Aristech s new 91,000 t/yr plant came on stream. That same year American Cyanamid closed its 23,000-t plant at Willow Island, W. Va., and withdrew from the aniline business. Mobay shut down its larger plant (45,000-t) at New Martinsville, W. Va. in 1983 and Du Pont idled its 77,000-tfacihtyinl984. 

In the United States, Du Pont and PPG had a long-established reputation in industrial and consumer paints. W. R. Grace since buying Dewey Almy, and Rohm Haas because of its age-old tradition in acrylics, drew substantial profits from their specialties. This was also true of American Cyanamid (additives for plastics, cosmetics) and of Monsanto (products for rubber, special polymers). Since its withdrawal from the tire business, BF Goodrich, aside from its PVC lines, is concentrating now on specialties. 

One widely used solution was the creation of new chemical entities through various spinoffs. Thus, between 1993 and 1999, Kodak gave birth to Eastman Chemical Company, American Cyanamid to Cytec Industries, Ciba-Geigy to Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Sandoz to Clariant, Monsanto to Solutia, and Rhone-Poulenc to Rhodia. Some more complex cases had to be solved differently. Hoechst, for example, proceeded in successive steps in 1994 it set up a fiftyfifty joint venture with Bayer, called Dystar, for the purpose of managing their respective dyestuffs businesses. In 1997 it transferred its specialty chemicals operations to Clariant in return for a 45 percent stake in the enlarged company finally, in 1999, it passed its industrial chemicals assets on to Celanese—the U.S. corporation it had acquired twelve years earlier—and passed Herberts, its coatings company, on to Du Pont. 

American Cyanamid s story before 1947 is succinctly reviewed in Haynes, Chemical Companies, pp. 21-25. Haynes lists the acquisition and the products manufactured. Further information is supplied by Moskowitz et al.. Everybody s Business, pp. 599-601 Fortune 22 (September 1940) 102-104 Derdak, ed.. International Directory, vol. 7, pp. 24-26 Spitz, Petrochemicals, p. 244 L. F. Haber, The Chemical Industry, 1900-1930 (Oxford Clarendon Press, 1971), pp. 88-90. 

CARLTON A. SEARS, JR. is Vice President, Virginia Chemicals, Inc., and President and Representative Director, Virchem Japan Ltd. He obtained his PhD in Chemistry from Notre Dame. Following employment with American Cyanamid, he joined Virginia Chemicals Inc. in 1961, where he carries on ertensive business activities in Japan, Mexico, and Europe. Dr. Sears is active in numerous business associations, and has served as President of the Commercial Chemical Development Association and Chairman of the ACS Division of Chemical Marketing and Economics. 

Dimethomorph (1) (Fig. 18.2) was discovered as a specific Oomycete fimgicide in the early 1980s by the pharmaceutical research group at Celamerck. This company was subsequently acquired by Shell, whose agrochemical business was in turn acquired by American Cyanamid, which was then acquired by BASF. Dime-... 

In 1957, the competition was primarily among Nalco, Filtrol and American Cyanamid for the cracking catalyst business. At that time catalysts based on natural clay material were selling for 270/ton but the synthetic silica-alumina was priced at about 400/ton this made it difficult for Nalco to compete 74). 

In the early 1960s when spandex production started in earnest there were four manufacturers E.I. DuPont deNemours (Lycra spandex), Monsanto, Globe Manufacturing (Glospan Cleerspan spandex), and American Cyanamid. At that time DuPont controlled approximately 80% of the market. Since then, Monsanto and Cyanamid have ceased manufacturing and DuPont expanded international production, but eventually sold its fiber business to Invista. Additional competitors have appeared on both the national and international scene. In the USA Lycra spandex is the best known of the competitors. 

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