Financing Chemical Expansion

Abstract

IN the seven postwar years from 1946 to 1952, the chemical industry has grown tremendously. Since even the experts have difficulty in agreeing on the companies that should be included in figures on the chemical industry, I shall limit my discussion to the six largest—Du Pont, Union Carbide, Allied, Dow, American Cyanamid, and Monsanto. All figures are for calendar years except Dow whose figures are for fiscal years ending May 31. For these six companies, sales more than doubled from $1740 million in 1945 to $4091 million in 1952—an increase of $2351 million dollars. Du Pont alone had a sales increase of almost $1 billion. That was more than twice total sales at Dow this year. This sales increase was made possible by the construction of new plants at a rate far in excess of anything done in the past. Construction expenditures for the seven years totaled $2667 million, of which the individual totals were: ...