SOUTHERN HORIZONS 



of butadiene isn't hitched tight to synthetic rubber. It 

 makes some rather fascinating new plastics." 



This hints that the new Celanese plant at Guadala- 

 jara, Mexico, may not be the only postwar expansion 

 planned by astute Camille Dreyfus for this company. 

 It reminded me of the new low-cost plastic from butyl- 

 ene and sulfur dioxide about which Ross Thomas and 

 Richard Alden, top Phillips petroleum chemists, are so 

 enthusiastic. 



"We flirted with these butadiene plastics long before 

 the war," Peterson went on, "and postwar we intend to 

 work up a lot of our chemical by-products. But," he 

 added quickly, "remember that Celanese Chemical is a 

 subsidiary of the Celanese Corporation. Our job will 

 be to supply our parent company with raw materials." 



At this point he shied away from a question that is 

 cudgeling many first-class petroleum and chemical 

 brains in these days: "Where do we go from here?" 



However tempting the prospects in petro-chemicals, 

 the oil executives declare flatly that they do not intend 

 to get into what they are pleased to call "the chemical 

 gadget business." They say they will make only basic 

 chemical intermediates, raw materials you can ship by 

 the tankcar, leaving to the rubber and chemical manu- 

 facturers the job of working these up into finished prod- 

 ucts. But the rubber and chemical people just cannot 

 help wondering. 



It may be true that the petroleum leaders, their eyes 

 264 



