USSR BECOMES WORLD'S SECOND LARGEST CHEMICAL PRODUCER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700230187-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 13
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 13, 2011
• Sequence Number: 187
• Publication Date: July 7, 1955
• Content Type: REPORT

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STAT
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USSR BECOMES WORLD'S SECOND LARGEST CHEMICAL PRODUCER
Chemieche Industrie, No 12
DUesseldorf, Dec 1954
In 1913, with a production valued at 70 million US dollars, Russia produced
less than 3 percent of the world's chemicals. In 1927, however, its share
amounted to 3.6 percent (190 million dollars and in 1938 to 8.4 percent (900
million). By 1952, this figure had risen to approximately 5 billion dollars,
or 11 percent, and in 1953, to 6.2 billion, or 12.5 percent of world production.
In the field of chemistry the Soviet Union has overtaken the Western European
countries and in world production is second only to the US.
The attempt to analyze the chemical industry of the USSR is greatly im-
peded by a lack of authentic information. In recent times, insofar as official
data are concerned, practically all that is available are the very summarily
kept publications about the Five-Year Plans, an occasional statement about the
percentage of increase in production, and information of a like nature concern-
ing the putting into operation of apparatus in one or another chemical plant.
Occasionally particulars of the Soviet economy may be obtained through the re-
ports of those returning from the USSR or from foreign specialists who were
active there. All of this information leaves considerable gaps. It only be-
gins to make sense when it is projected onto information of an earlier period.
Until the 1930s, the journalistic enthusiasm of the Soviets was great.
Russian technical journals reported in detail on the forward strides in
scientific exploration, on production, on new plants, etc. Production and
export statistics were available to a considerable degree. From these reports,
it is possible to draw conclusions concerning the present level of production.
It is, however, impossible to follow this development exactly. Insofar as such
details are presented in the following report, they represent indirect deductions
and are set forth with reservations.
In 1953, the Soviet Union produced approximately 6.2 billion US dollars'
worth of chemical production, more than twice as much as the German Federal
Republic and nearly one tnird the production of the US. These relationships in
the coming years will presumably shift even more in favor of the USSR, whose
production -- to judge by its plans -- may reach a value of 7.5 billion dollars
in 1955.
In comparing the structure of the Soviet chemical industry with that of
Western European countries, one finds considerable differences. The accent is
on fertilizers, inorganic heavy chemicals, ferroalloys, synthetic rubber, rub-
ber goods, fuels) and other producer goods. In these fields the Russians have
far surpassed the other industrialized countries, with the exception of the US.
The same may soon apply to petrochemistry. But synthetic materials, chemical
fibers, dyestuffs, mineral dyes, lacquers, pest-control products, perfumes, cos-
metics, photographic products, and to a certain degree even medicines, have
failed to keep pace with foreign countries. It is the goal of Soviet industrial
planning to forge ahead in these special branches and to fill in the existing
gaps as soon as possible. Increased demands for chemical consumer goods will
continue to be subordinated to general industrial development, as in the past.
Sulfuric Acid and Sulfur
The production of sulfuric acid in the US is four times that of the USSR,
but already in 1952, the Soviet Union supplied as much as Great Britain and
France combined, and far more than Germany as a whole. Its production increased
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from 1.5 million metric tons per year before the onset of the war to over 3 mil-
lion tons in 1951, and today may be in the neighborhood of 3.5 million tons. The
acid is produced in superphosphate plants and in chemical and chemical-metallurgi-
cal combines which are distributed throughout the country, particularly in the
central European USSR, the Northwest, the Ukraine, the Urals, and in West Siberia.
Earlier, the principle raw material was pyrite from the Urals. This supply,
however, is on the decline. For this reason there is an increase in the use of
gas from roasting ovens of nonferrous metallurgical plants which have been com-
bined with sulfuric acid plants. Other possible raw materials, such as carbon
pyrites, pyrrhotite, and gypsum may also eventually attain a special significance.
A dismantled gypsum-sulfuric acid plant of the I. G. in Wolfen (East Germany), the
capacity of which was about 150,090 metric tons per year, has already been operat-
ing for several years in the USSR.
Elemental sulfur is obtained from 15 mines. The most important deposit is
in the Karakum Desert, some 400 kilometers east of the Caspian Sea. In several
copper plants, principally in Mednogorsk (Blyava, in the sourthern Urals), sulfur
is produced with copper by the Norwegian Orkla method. Further sources of sulfur
are coke- and roasting-oven gas, the products of subterranean gasification of
coal, and finally the mirabilite obtained in the recently opened Kara-Bogas Com-
bine (Caspian Sea). The production of elemental sulfur amounted to 80,000 tons
in 1937 and 1944 and could not have increased to much more than 100,000 tons
since then. The entire consumption of sulfur (in all forms) is at present in
the neighborhood of 1.5 million metric tons per year.
Sodium Carbonate, Sodium Hydroxide, and Chlorine
The US at present still produces about four times as much sodium carbonate
and five times as much sodium hydroxide as the Soviet Union. British production
of sodium carbonate nearly equals that of the USSR, but her production of sodium
hydroxide exceeds that of the latter by perhaps 150,000 metric tons per year.
The USSR has already overtaken all other sodium alkali-producing countries. The
USSR produced 532,000 tons of sodium chloride in 1938, approximately 800,000 tons
in 1950, 870,000 tons in 1951, about one million tons in 1952, and 1 1/4 million
tons in 1953. According to the data available so far, the 1954 production is 1.4
million tons, and a production of 1.5 million tons is to be expected for 1955.
About 130,000 tons of sodium hydroxide were obtained in 1938. The estimates
for the years 1950 through 1955 are: 390.000, 420,000, 465,000, 535,000, 590,000,
and 700,000 tons, respectively. The principle areas for production of soda are
Berezniki in the Urals, Slavyansk and Lisichansk in the Donets Basin, Baku, and
Sterlitamak in Bashkir. Besides these, there are several other Solvay process
plants and natural soda plants. Sodium hydrcxide is extracted at the above-men-
tioned sodium plants both by causticizino as well as by electrolysis. In addi-
tion, there is still another series of chlorine-alkali electrolysis installa-
tions. Moreover, various lar.,er electrolyzers have recently been erected in a
new chemical center in the Volga area.
Only foreign estimates are available on chlorine production. These indi-
cate a production o1' about 75,000 tons for 1950. It is asserted that part of
the chlorine as produced may have been blown off and wasted. Nevertheless,
this estimate seems a bit conservative, and the true production may currently
be even greater.
Bromine and Iodine, Fluorine Compounds
Raw material sources of bromine are various seas and ponds, diluted soluble
oils (petroleum bohrwasser), the discarded solution from the processing of
carnallite at the potassium plants in the Urals and Galicia, and finally, the
brine of the ]Cara-Bogas Bay on the Caspian Sea, where a huge combine for the
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production of sodium sulfate and other inorganic substances has been operating
for some time. The production of elemental bromine rose from 200 tons in 1932
to 750 tons in 1936. In 1937, the production of 1,450 tons of technical bro-
mine and 255 tons of bromine preparations was planned. With the development of
transportation facilities the demand for ethyl bromide, and, consequently, the
production of bromine, may have increased.
Iodine is produced primarily from diluted soluble oils in the Caucasus.
The production rose from 13 tons in 1930 to 90 tons in 1934 and 163 tons in 1936,
and at present is in the neighborhood of 250 tons per year.
Fluorine compounds are produced principally in the Urals. A plant in
Polevskoy produces cryolite, sodium fluoride, aluminum fluoride, and sodium
silicon fluoride. The latter is also produced as a by-product in several
superphosphate plants. In the meantime, a second cryolite plant has been
built in the Urals, and probably also one in Central Asia. There was also one
planned for the Donets Basin. The chemistry of inorganic fluorides is pre-
sumed to be not yet greatly developed.
Calcium Carbide
The production of carbide is about five times the 1936 production and now
is in the neighborhood of 475,000-500,000 ton.;. Compared with the US (640,000
tons in 1952), this is a relatively high volume of production. But the West
German Republic (740,000 tons), the GDR (650,000 tons), and Japan (620,000 tons)
produce considerably more than the USSR. The Soviet Union produces very little
calcium cyanimide, and for that reason currently needs large quantities of car-
bide for the snythetic rubber industry and for autogenous metalworking. There
is, therefore, not much carbide available for other chemical purposes. The
yield of acetylene by other methods is supposedly not great. It might be
deduced from this that acetylene chemistry is only slightly developed.
Phosphorus
It is roughly estimated that the Soviet Union has the capacity to produce
about 45,000 tons of elemental phosphorus. The production may have more than
doubled from 15,000 tons before the war to perhaps 35,000 tons today. Among
the world producers of phosphorus, the USSR holds second place behind the US,
with about 12 percent of the total production. The greater part is used in the
production of concentrated phosphorus fertilizers, such as double- and triple-
strength superphosphates, as well as highly concentrated mixed fertilizers.
The following locations of plants for the production of elemental phosphorus
and derivatives are known (those plants operating under the damp-treatment proc-
ess are not considered here): Aktyubinsk, Kazakhstan; Berezniki, Molotovskaya
Oblast; Dzerzhinak, near Gorkiy; Kandalaksha, Murmanskaya Oblast, Kineshma,
Ivanovskaya Oblast; Kirovsk, Murmanskaya Oblast; Fervouralsk, Sverdlovskaya
Oblast; Ugol'ny, North Urals; and Voskrezensk, hbskovskaya Oblast.
Chemical Fertilizers
The consumption of snythetic fertilizers has approximately doubled since
prewar times. By Western European standards, however, on a per-capita basis
this is still small. From the occasionally reported wholesale figures for
production of fertilizers, the increases in production are shown in the fol-
lowing table (in 1,000 tons):
STAT
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Plan
1155
5,000
(1,000)
20000
(1,000)
(760)
9,300
s me
es at 5.5 million . thi
1.7 million tons is nitrogen, 1.2 milli
on tons potash, 2.6 millionstonsfphos-~
phorus. According to official information, it is planned by 1959 to bring
production up to 16.5-17.5 million tons, and by the end of 1964 up to 26-30
million tons. The USSR would thus become the second largest fertilizer producer
of the world. This plan can only be fulfilled if new capacity is created every
2 years which would equal in size all the synthetic fertilizer plants built
fro, 1927 to the beginning of the war. The new plants are to be distributed over
all the agricultural regions of the country.
Priority will be diveu more t'run before to highly concentrated preparations
in order to spare costs of transportation. One of the newest products, it was
recently announced, is ammoniated potassium phosphate (m KH2y04 . n NR4H2 P04), which was
developed since 1937 by the Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry of the
Academy of Sciences. It is produced by crystallization and contains 50-52 per-
cent P205, 16.5-20 percent K20, 5-6.5 percent N, and not more than 2-3 percent
Cl -- ion. Raw materials employed are phosphoric acid, ammonium hydroxide, and
potassium chloride. Aphthitalite and ammonium phosphate may also be obtained from
the mother lye (mutterlauge) by the addition of sodium sulphate.
Mixed fertilizers will be produced in the large nitrogen combines, the
superphosphate plants, and other fertilizer enterprises. In various institutes,
including the All-Union Institute of Agricultural Microbiology in Moscow,
bacterial preparations with strop, fertilizing effects have been developed.
Nitrogen Compounds
According to the latest estimates, which are derived from previous calcu-
lations, the present production of nitrogen compounds amounts to 500,000-
540,000 tons per year, or 7-6 percent of world production. By 1955, an in-
crease of about 910,000 tons output is to be expected (760,000 tons of nitrogen
fertilizers and 150,000 tons of industrial nitrogen; 790,000 tons will be syn-
thetic and 120,000 tons will be from coking plants). In the course of the next
10 years, that is by 1964, a five-fold increase is planned. If this intention
is realized, the USSR may closely rival the US in nitrogen production, leaving
all other produces far behind.
In 1940, approximately 250,000 tons of nitrogen compounds were produced,
190,000 tons synthetically and 60,000 tons in coking plants. Of this, about
170,000 tons were fertilizer and 80,000 tons were industrial products. By
1950, the production of nitrogen fertilizer increased by 2.2 times, or to
380,000 tons, and that of industrial nitrogen to an estimated 100,000 tons. Of
the total 480,000 tons, 410,000 tons may have been synthetic and 70,000 tons
from coking plants.
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Production
1940
Plan
1950
Production
1950
(P205 content) yi~clb
1,500
3,000
2,700
(300)
(600)
(540)
Potash fertilizers,
concentrate
(K20 content)
850
1,100
1,100
(425)
(550)
(550)
(170)
(330)
(380)
Total fertilizers
2,670
5,100
4 ,950
The total production for 1953 1
ti
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The Soviet nitrogen industry has been set up in such ai manner that about
half of the ammonia production can be used to produce nitric acid, and the
greater part of this in turn can be converted to Hoko-acid (concentrated nitric
acid). Among the products produced from ammonia, ammonium nitrate occupies a
conspicuous place as a ballast-free nitrate fertilizer. In addition, ammonium
nitrate can be used in the production of explosives. Nearly all the large com-
bines are so laid out that a conversion of ammonium nitrate to Hoko-acid is pos-
sible. Calcium cyanimide is produced only in small quantity because of the lack
of CaC2.
Despite a shift of the nitrogen industry toward the East, a considerable
part of the production capacity has remained in European USSR. The principal
part of the production of synthetic ammonia and derivatives is produced, as be-
fore, by the great combines in Central USSR, the Ukraine, the Urals, Siberia,
and Central Asia.
Capacity (metric
tons per year)
Berezniki Chemical Combine "Voroshilov," Urals
129,000
Chirchik Electrochemical Combine "Stalin," Tashkentskaya
Oblast, Central Asia
123,000
Magnitogorsk Chemical Combine "Stalin," Urals
120,000
Lisichansk Nitrogen Combine, Ukraine
100,000
Kemerovo Nitrogenous Fertilizer Plant, West Siberia
75,000
Stalinogorsk Chemical Combine "Stalin," Tula Province
66,ooo
Dneprodzerzhinsk Nitrogen Combine, Ukraine
55,000
Dzerzhinsk Chemical Plant "Kalinin," Gorkovskaya Oblast
48,000
Gorlovka Nitrogen Combine, Stalinskaya Oblast, Ukraine
45,000
Derbent Chemical Combine, Dagestan, Caucasus
38,000
Khalilovo Nitrogen Plant, Urals
30,000
Grozny Nitrogen Plant, Caucasus
25,000
Baku Nitrogen and Soda Plant, Caucasus
25,000
Gubakha Nitrogen Combine, Molotovskaya Oblast, Urals
25,000
Brozeuli Nitrate Fertilizer Combine, Georgia
22,000
Kamensk-Shakhtinskiy Chemical Combine, Rostovskaya Oblast
20,000
Shchelkovo Chemical Plant, hbskovskaya Oblast
7,500
Until the end of 1944, the figures cited above for the individual
atmospheric-nitrogen hydration plants were known. The totals are probably
not complete. Furthermore, they include partly capacities available at the
time and partly planned capacities.
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There are many plants in the Soviet Union producing r.itric acid. Most of
these possess equipment for the production of Hoko-acid. Some of these plants
are located near atmospheric nitrogen or coke-chemical plants, and other plants
operate without their own ammonia extractors.
Phosphate Fertilizers
As phosphate raw materials, the USSR possesses apatite on the Kola Penin-
sula and phosphorite on the upper Kama, in the oblasts of Moscow, Aktyubinsk,
in Podolsk, the Ukraine, the Urals, the Volga region, Belorussia, Estonia,
Georgia, etc., but above all in Central Asia in the Kara-Tau Mountains. In the
latter is allegedly located the largest deposit of phosphorus in the world.
The most important phosphate fertilizer is superphosphate. It was formerly
produced in eight plants: in Leningrad, Vo3kresensk, Molotov, Konstantinovka,
Dzerzhinsk, Vinnitsa, Odessa, and Aktyubinsk. To these were added in 1939 the
superphosphate plants at Riga, Kovno, Memel, and Lemberg. Besides these, there
are superphosphate plants in Berezniki as well as in other chemical combines.
During the war, four superphosphate plants were constructed in Central Asia for
the processin4, of the Kara-Tau phosphate ores, and after the war three new plants
were built, in the Ukraine, in Kirovakan, Armenia, and in Estonia. The last
is being greatly expanded.
In addition to superphosphate, phosphorite meal, ground basic slag, phos-
phate precipitate, double and triple superphosphate (based on thermal phosphoric
acid), and concentrated phosphate fertilizers from thermal phosphoric acid are
produced in such places as Kandalaksha and Kirovsk.
As a producer of phosphate fertilizers, the Soviet Union stands about
equal to France, the greatest of the Western European producers.
Petrochemistry
It is maintained in the foreign press that one of the greatest bottlenecks
of the Soviet economy is petroleum, that its production, in comparison with a
world cross-section, has been exceptionally slow in developing, and that con-
sumption is significantly lower than, in western countries. The reserves [it
is claimed] are visibly decreasing, and the lack of oil can restrict the further
development of industry and seriously hinder the war efforts of the Soviet
Union. Such arguments are not only false but dangerous. Even as it was dif-
ficult a few years ago to believe in the possibility of Soviet atomic weapons,
in similar fashion we quite falsely estimate the Soviet potential in the
petroleum field.
The petroleum production of the USSR amounted to some 31 million tons in
1940. Because of the effects of war and the exhaustion of the upper stratum at
Baku, only 21 million tons were produced in 1945. But it was already possible
in 1950 to exceed the production plan (for 35.4 million tons) with a production
of 37.6 million tons. In 1951, 42.3 million tons were produced, the following
year 47.4 million tons, and in 1953, 52.3 million tons (8 percent of world pro-
duction). In 1954, it will probably be 57 million tons. The so-called Stalin
Plan anticipated an output of about 60 million tons for 1960. But advances in
the field of petroleum made it possible to require the production of 69.9 mil-
lion tons in the Five-Year Plan later drawn up. The best evidence against an
alleged petroleum shortage in the Soviet Union are her exports of petroleum
during the past 3 years. They amounted to about one million tons in 1952 and
2 million tons in 1953, and will probably reach 4 million tons in 1954 (includ-
ing shipments from Rumania). Primarily, diesel, gas, and heating oils are ex-
ported. The high point to date of petroleum exports was attained in 1932 with
shipments totaling 6 million tons.
STAT
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Of the approximately 70
the Caucasus and in the Volga-Ural petroleum on, and n 10, some 15 each are located in
region, a10 each in East Galacia ia and in
the Asiatic regions of the count
r
y. The rest are distributed among the other
industrial regions. The operating capacity of the refineries increased from 33
million tons in 1950 to about 47 million tons in 1953 and may reach an output
of 65 million metric tons a year in 1955. The operational capacity of the
cracking plants was even more developed: from 12 million tons capacity in 1950
1955to- over 15 million tons in 1951, and -- conceivably -- about 32 million tons in
Before the war about one third of the crude oil put into refineries went
through the cracking process later; this proportion has now increased to about
half. Of the 1940 production of gasoline derived from crude oil, amounting to
a scant 4.9 million tons, two thirds was produced by the cracking plants. Today
it may be four fifths. At present, an estimated 12-13 million tons of gasoline
derived from crude oil is being produced.
The yield of ligroine may have increased in a similar manner, from one mil-
lion to 2.5 or 3 million tons, and the output of diesel oil to an even greater
extent, from about 980,000 to 5 million tons, probably even more. The enlarge-
ment of capacities has been accompanied by an improvement of production methods
and a modernization of the refineries, which were probably old and deteriorated.
Synthetic fuels cannot be overlooked in any evaluation of the petroleum
situation of the Soviet Union. Even before the outbreak of war, experimental
haveplantbeens
the,mouth dof thetDniestr, between tTiraspol' and Nikolayev,
with the help of German specialists, as have other dismantled German plants in
the chemical combines of Dzerzhinsk (Gorkovskaya Oblast) and Cheremkhovo
(Irkutskaya Oblast). Carbohydration plants are located in Kemerovo (West Siberia)
and in Chirchik (Uzbekistan).
According to the latest five-year plan, synthetic gasoline and carbo-
hydration are expected to be si;;niflcantly developed. There are reports that 41
synthetic gasoline plants are already in operation, and 11 more should be by the
end of 1954. The present production of synthetic fuels could probably satisfy
the needs of two fully equipped air fleets.
It is impossible to investigate the validity of these reports. It is
possible that they pertain only to plans. Yet, there is no reason to believe
that the Soviet regime will not carry out such plans. German methods for the
synthetization of gasoline were supposedly turned over to the Russians shortly
after the Treaty of 1939 was made. But even were this not the case, there would
still no longer be technological secrets today, for German technicians are avail-
able in great numbers.
Oil shale is a further source of fuel. The most important deposits are lo-
cated in Estonia near Kokhtla-yarve, in Leningradskaya Oblast, and near Gdov
in the Volga region. In the principal Estonian production areas some 8 million
tons of shale were obtained in 1950. They should reach about 18 million tons
by 1955. Leningradskaya Oblast supplied probably 3 million tons and Gdov rela-
tively lesser amounts. The total production of shale oil should, according to
plan, be increased from the 1950 production of 450,000 tons to 810,000 tons in
1955. The Estonian shale serves as a basis for a developing shale-chemical
industry. Among other things, synthetic 4asolire is being produced. Accord-
ing to plan, the production should increase by 80 percent from 1950 to 1955. The
gas obtained by shale distillation is piped into Leningrad and already serves
a large part of the domestic needs; production has increased by 2.2 times.
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Natural gas is of increasing significance. However, the production for 1950
the seems plan to have requirement amounted of 8to.4 only about 3.5 billion cubic meters, as compared with
billion cubic meters. A yield of 6.3 billion cubic
meters is expected for 1955? The most important field is located northeast of
Saratov. An 845-kilometer--long pipeline carries the gas to Moscow. This makes
possible a saving of Probably 8.5 million tons of coal per year. A very pro-
ductive source of natural gas near Dashava in the eastern Carpathians serves
the cities of Lemberg and Kiev.
anUfa d a receive
the arena betweenethetVolgafandythehUrals, and
natural longistance gas
is being
built from the source near Ukhta to the city of Molotov.
Natural gas is also used to a certain extent as motor fuel. Furthermore,
like crude oil, it serves as a basis for a developing petrochemical industry.
Plants for the extraction of organic chemicals are located near the crude oil
refineries of the Caucasus. Others are being built in the new chemical center
on the Volga. Acetylene, ethylene, naphthalene acids, benzol, toluol, and
other aromatics were extracted by Soviet methods before 1941.
During the war, the Americans made available their methods in the field
of petrochemistry and were active in erecting plants and operating them. A
plant for the production of benzol from ethane and propane was erected in
Ishimbay at that time with help from the US.
In addition to the aforementioned products, such things as ethanol and
other alcohols, organic acids, solvents, medicines, dyes, synthetic rubber,
fuels, and numerous other products were produced from crude oil as well as
from natural gas. At present, the Americans are far superior to the Russians
in the field of petrochemistry. There is little doubt, however, that this
branch of production will soon be a very important factor in Soviet chemistry.
Products of Tar Distillation
Today, plants for the distillation of tar are located near all the larger
coking plants. They are primarily in the Ukraine, in the Urals, and in West
Siberia. Furthermore, tar is being supplied for distillation to various chemical
plants which are engaged in the production of dyestuffs, intermediate products,
and other organic chemicals.
Official figures have not been made available for a long time. Produc-
tion in 1955 is expected to be as follows (in 1,000 tons):
1,550
Benzol
365
Toluol
69
Solvent naphtha
14
Other light oils
15
Ammonium sulfate
540
Coke-oven gas (in billions of
cubic meters)
390
These production figures are about one third those of the US for 1951.
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STAT
The technique of distillation has recently been improved. The output can
thereby be increased. This applies, among other things, to naphthalene, which
seems to have created considerable interest as a raw material for organic chemi-
cal synthetics. Until now, the operational efficiency of the organic-synthetic
industry generally has been less developed than in other industrial countries.
This may be concluded from the proportionately small chloride and carbide pro-
duction.
Synthetically-produced products, i.e., benzol, toluol, phenol, and
others, are not included in this statement. Synthetics plants for carbonaceous
materials (Kohlenwertstoffe) operate in connection with various explosives
plants, crude oil refineries, and several chemical combines, for example:
Rubezhnoye Chemical Combine, Ukraine; Leningrad-Okhta Chemical Combine; Kine-
shma Chemical Plant "Tovarishch Frunze," Ivanovskaya Oblast; Chemical Plant
Bondyuzhskiy Zavod, Tatar ASSR; Berezniki Chemical Combine "Voroshilov," Urals;
Polevskoy Chemical Plant, Sverdlovskaya Oblast, Urals; and Ufa Chemical Combine,
Bashkir ASSR.
Tar Dyestuffs
Production is concentrated extensively in and around Moscow and consists
mostly of former German private enterprise facilities. Other plants are in
the Ukraine, along the Volga, in Leningrad, and in other cities. The main
producers are: Moscow Derbenevskiy Plant (formerly Farbwerke Hoechst); Moscow
Dorogomilovskiy Plant (formerly Richard Meyer AG, Berlin); Butyrki Plant in
Moscow (formerly Badische Anilin- and Soda-Fabrik); Kineshsa Chemical Plant
"Tovarishch Frunze" on the Volga in the Ivanovskiy Okrug (formerly "Benzolom")
Rubezhnoye Chemical Combine near Lisichansk in the Donets Basin; and Stalino-
gorsk Chemical Combine "Stalin."
After the war, two new plants were put into operation in eastern USSR.
Production has increased as follows (in 1,000 tons):
1913
--
4
1940
-- 4o
1929
--
13
1950
-- 43
1933
--
16
1951
-- 6o
1938
--
35
1952
-- 64
At present, some 70,000 metric tons a year are produced. The assortment is
not yet large. Principally commercial sulfuric and a.o-dyestuffs are being
produced. The demand for these varieties appears ;c je readily net, for
large quantities are being sold abroad to such countries as Iran, India,
Argentina, Japan, and others. The output of indanthrene and other dyestuffs
of high quality is relatively small.
Industrial plans call for an increased operatir-3 capacity and an im-
provement over the previous pcor quality of dyestuffs, and a considerable in-
crease in the variety of dyestuffs. This will result in emphasis being placed
upon the manufacture of high-quality products, such as photographic dyes.
Synthetic Rubber
The Soviet Union was the first country to undertake the large-scale
production of synthetic rubber (1932). There were four plants in 1939 which
utilized ethyl alcohol as a raw material. A fifth plant used calcium carbide
as a base. During the war, a large portion of the production dropped off.
With the help of specialists from the US and -- after 1945 -- from Germany,
new plants were built. At present, there are already about 20 synthetic plants,
and their number continues to increase.
sm
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The following plant locations are known: Moscow, Leningrad, Yaroslavl',
Voronezh, Yefremov (Tulskaya Oblast), Baku, Yerevan (Armenia), Aktyubinsk
(Kazakhstan), Magnitogorsk, Kazan, Novo-Tagil (Urals), Kemerovo (West Siberia),
Riga, Michurinsk, Medvezhinsk, Rizhskiy near Kursk, and Temir-Tau (Karaganda).
Production in 1,000 Tons (partially estimated)
1933
--
2
1935
--
26
1950
--
225
1938
1951
--
270
1940
--
125
1952
--
290
1949
--
200
1953
--
330
Of the 1950 production (250,000 tons planned), probably some 155,000 tons
were extracted from an alcohol base and 95,000 tons on a carbide (or possibly
some on a petroleum) base. An 82-percent increase in production, to about
400,000 tons, is anticipated for 1955, as compared with 1950. Production will
be extensively based upon natural gas. At present, the US produces about three
times as much synthetic rubber as Russia. The USSR is the second largest pro-
ducer in the world.
The attempts to raise plants from which synthetic rubber can be obtained -
especially Kok-Saghyz -- on a broad basis have not met with the desired success.
At present, on a relatively large acreage of these plants, some 15,000 tons a
year of natural rubber are produced. However, the rubber needs of the Soviet
Union amount to approximately 400,000 tons, of which about half goes into the
production of tires.
Importation of natural rubber amounted to 27,000 tons in 1938. One hundred
thousand tons each year were imported in 1948 and 1949, and in the following 3
years, some 80,000 tons each. In 1953, according to the latest available infor-
mation, significantly less was brought in. Moreover, the German Democratic Re-
public has for several years delivered some 35,000 tons of synthetic rubber a
year to the Soviet Union.
The consumption of plastic substances probably amounts to 650,000 metric
tons per year. It thus amounts to somewhat over 3 kilograms per capita of the
population and is only half that of the US. This seems to include chemical
fibers, synthetic rubber, photographic film, and the like in the USSR. Produc-
tion is, however, expanding.
Three new plants have been put into operation since the war and still
others are planned or under construction. An experimental institute, founded
several years ago in Leningrad, is occupied with the technology of new types
of plastics, especially polyvinyl resins. Vinyl resin, in the form of pipes,
welding rods, and sheets, is being produced in several plants. Polyacryl resins
are also produced.
Before the war, primarily phenolformaldehyde resins were produced, along
with casein resin, celluloid, and other cellulose substances. But because of raw
material shortages, the production was small: only 14,000 tons in 1938, as
compared with 10,500 tons in 1936 (2/3 phenoplast and 1/3 celluloid). Plant
locations are as follows:
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Casein-resin -- Mnevniki near Moscow; Kalinin (formerly Tver); Dnepropetrovsk,
Ukraine; Revel, Estonia (two plants); Dorpat (Estonia); Riga (Latvia); and
Shaulyai (Lithuania).
Celluloid -- Okhta Chemical Combine near Leningrad; and Rubber Plant "Estico,"
Dorpat (small plant).
Cellulose acetate -- Produced in Okhta primarily for safety-film; cellophane
(Zellglas) in the Mytishchiy Plant near Moscow, in Klin, Mloskovskaya Oblast and
in the rayon plant of the former Kuito 0. Y. near Enzo (former Finnish areas.
Cellulose esters and ethers, for example, benzylcellulose, are being produced
in the Okhta Chemical Combine.
Safetyglass -- Produced in a series of plants ijn Konstantinovka, Ukraine
("Avtosteklo" Plant), Gorkiy (Glass Plant), Dzerzhinsk, and Moscow ("Avtosteklo"
Plant). These plants produce three-ply class, the center layer of which con-
sists of celluloid or acrytalen. Types in which the celluloid center layer is
replaced by vinyl resin or cellulose acetate are supposedly being produced in
M1vtishchiy near Moscow.
r
Phenoplast -- Orekhovo Zuyevo "Karbolit" Plant, which also produces acrylate;
chemical plant in Kuskovo near Moscow; experimental plant of the "Soyuzkhimplast-
mass" Trust in Lyubuchany; Dzerzhinsk Chemical Plant; and Okhta Chemical Combine.
Aminoplast -- Odessa 'Bol'shevik" Plant; also in Karachar and Kuskovo near
Moscow.
Synthetic copalite (Kunstkopale) -- Okhta Chemical Combine.
Imitation leatl: