Plastics and Rubber Products Manufacturing

Table 16.1 U.S. Shipments of Plastics and Rubber Products Manufacturing...

Today both natural mbber, an agricultural crop, and synthetic elastomers are multi-billion dollar businesses. Looking back at Fig. 16.1, we see that Synthetic Rubber (NAICS 325212) totals 5.7 billion. It is a large area of polymer use and is 1% of Chemical Manufacturing. But in the related industry covering final end products called Plastics and Rubber Products... 

Uses Manufacture of acetate rayon, acetic anhydride, acetone, acetyl compounds, cellulose acetates, chloroacetic acid, ethyl alcohol, ketene, methyl ethyl ketone, vinyl acetate, plastics and rubbers in tanning laundry sour acidulate and preservative in foods printing calico and dyeing silk solvent for gums, resins, volatile oils and other substances manufacture of nylon and fiber, vitamins, antibiotics and hormones production of insecticides, dyes, photographic chemicals, stain removers latex coagulant textile printing. 

Compared to carbon, the related element silicon is relatively unimportant, so far as uses for the uncombined element are concerned. Most of the silicon produced commercially is used in the metallurgical and glass industries. In metallurgy, it is ued in the manufacture of a useful iron-silicon alloy known as ferrosilicon. Silicon is also used as an additive in organic products such as plastic and rubber compounds, and elemental silicon is a fundamental material in semiconductor and microprocessor manufacturing. 

Total employment at U.S. chemicals manufacturing firms fell by 13,800 from 2007 to 2008 to reach 847,100. 2009 employment figures for chemicals fell further to 802,800. Employment at plastics and rubber plants fell dramatically by 27,800 from 2007 to 2008 to 729,400 and even more drastically in 2009 to 627,400. Unfortunately, this isn t due to a rise in productivity it s due to a falling number of factories. In 2007-2009, closings included the shuttering of Sun Chemical Corporation s Rosebank facility in Staten Island, New York and Dow Chemical s Latex production facility in Freeport, Texas. Through 2010, Dow Chemical planned to close six ethylene-related chemical plants in Louisiana and Texas. 

Styrene is at the centre of an important industry, with a value of some 66 billion euros. The styrene production capacity is ca. 20 Mt/a worldwide. Most is obtained by ethylbenzene dehydrogenation and all the production is used for the synthesis of polymers (polystyrene, styrene-acrylonitrile, styrene-butadiene) used as plastics and rubbers in the manufacture of household products packaging, tubes, tires, and endless other applications (see also Chapter 7). 

A tabulation similar to Table 13.1, but listing tbe major polymers and copolymers manufactured in the United States, is shown in Table 13.2. Many of the polymers and copolymers in this table and their applications were developed during and after World War II, and most are manufactured from the higher ranked organic commodities listed in Table 13.1 by traditional thermochemical polymerization. Petroleum and natural gas are the primary raw materials. With few exceptions, the polymeric products from these feedstocks have annual values of more than 1 billion. It is evident that consumer demand for plastics and rubbers is very large and that the market for polymers and copolymers has exhibited good growth. 

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