Montedison, ENI move to join chemical units Italy's two large chemical compa­nies—Montedison and EniChem, the chemicals unit of state-owned energy company Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (ENI)—have taken the first tentative steps toward merg­ing their chemical operations into one joint venture. Last week, Franco Reviglio, president of ENI, and Raul Gardini, president of Montedison, signed a letter of intent to negoti­ate the 50-50 venture.

The new company, shares of which would be offered on the stock market, would be involved in a broad palette of basic chemical products—petrochemicals, some plastics, fertilizers, fibers, and dye intermediates.

Proceeding on the assumption that politics will not scuttle the deal, the new company will have shared sales of $11.02 billion ($1.00 = 1270 lira on May 26), which would put it solidly among the world's 10 larg­est chemical producers. The com­bined work force would total 50,000.

ENI would be out of the chemi­cals business completely. And Mont­edison would have given up its most basic chemical or petrochemical lines. Sources close to the negotia­tions say that Montedison would retain four major units: Erbamont, its pharmaceuticals subsidiary, which in turn owns 40% of Spanish drug producer Antibioticos; Himont, which specializes in polypropylene, advanced polymers, and composites; Ausimont, which produces a vari­ety of materials (it might contribute ethylene-propylene elastomers to the new venture); and SELM, Mont­edison's energy unit. Montedison would retain its exploration, pro­duction, petroleum-products market­ing, and power-generating unit, and would shift aromatics and refinery operations to the new company.

"This joint venture won't be the answer to the big chemical trade deficit Italy has," says Albert Alonzo, a chemicals analyst with London brokers Barclays de Zoete Wedd. "There will still be a heavy inflow of intermediates and high-value-added products from abroad."

"It is slightly optimistic, at this

Richard Bernstein wins Welch Award in chemistry

Physical chemist Richard B. Bernstein, a professor at the University of Cali­fornia, Los Angeles, has been named the 1988 winner of the $225,000 Rob­ert A. Welch Award in Chemistry. The award is given annually for exception­al contributions to fundamental re­search. Bernstein, who pioneered the field of molecular beam scattering in chemistry, was cited for his work in developing experimental and theoreti­cal methods to elucidate the dynamics of the molecular collision process. He is also the winner of the American Chemical Society's Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics for 1988. The Welch Award will be presented by the Welch Foundation at a banquet in Houston Oct. 31 .

stage, to say this will be a rejuvena­tion of the Italian chemical indus­try," he adds. "Just the fact that they are saying 'no job losses' seems very optimistic. Doing it this way round doesn't amount to the massive ratio­nalization the industry would need."

However, for both parents, there will be benefits. ENI will be rid of its loss-plagued basics. And Mont­edison, predicts Alonzo, will end up "incredibly profitable and very streamlined. They will earn almost the same profits that the whole con­glomeration did in the past."

The slim lines of Montedison,

however, eventually will be con­stricting, he predicts, limiting the company's ability to expand or sup­port continuing R&D. But here is where Dow Chemical, which holds 5% of Montedison and is aiming toward an increased presence in Italy, could enter the equation. "Montedison will eventually need a bigger partner," he says, "and that will be where Dow will fit in, at some later stage. I can't help feel­ing that Dow must be eyeing the 'new' Montedison as a partner. It begins to make more sense."

Patricia Layman, London

Report blasts Patent Office automation The Department of Commerce is moving quickly to implement a re­port highly critical of the Patent & Trademark Office's efforts to fully automate its patent search and re­trieval operations. An Industry Re­view Panel found that the current automated patent system is over-designed and as a result needs a redundant communications network and redundant storage of all patent images at high resolution.

The panel, which is chaired by James Burrows, director of the Na­tional Bureau of Standards' Insti­tute for Computer Science & Tech­nology, confirmed the need for an automated system. But it found

that there is not a totally off-the-shelf system that can provide the capabilities and performance that PTO needs for patent search and retrieval.

By implementing its recommen­dations, the panel estimates that PTO could save some $70 million in acquisition costs and $40 million in maintenance costs over a 10-year period. However, the panel said that even if its technical recommenda­tions were implemented, manage­ment flaws, if not corrected, would likely continue to cause schedule slippages, cost overruns, and per­formance and reliability problems.

The Commerce Department says

May 30, 1988 C&EN 5