Union Carbide
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Union Carbide Corporation is one of the oldest chemical and polymers company in the U.S. and currently employs more than 3,800 employees. In 1920, its researchers developed an economical way to make ethylene from natural gas, giving birth to the modern petrochemicals industry. Today, Union Carbide possesses some of the industry's most advanced process and catalyst technologies, and operates some of the most cost-efficient, large-scale production facilities in the world.
Union Carbide primarily produces chemicals and polymers that undergo one or more further conversions by customers before reaching consumers. Some of these materials are high-volume commodities, while others are specialty products meeting the needs of smaller market niches. The end-uses served include paints and coatings, packaging, wire and cable, household products, personal care, pharmaceuticals, automotive, textiles, agriculture and oil and gas.
Union Carbide is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company (TDCC) and sells most of the products it manufactures to TDCC.
[edit] Company history
1917 Union Carbide & Carbon Corporation is incorporated on Nov. 1, and acquires the stock of: Linde Air Products Co.; National Carbon Co., Inc.; Prest-O-Lite Co., Inc.; and Union Carbide Company (formed in 1898).
1919 George Curme files the first patent for commercial preparation of ethylene.
1920 Union Carbide establishes Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Corporation; also, the first commercial ethylene plant is completed at Clendenin, WVA - the start of the petrochemical industry.
1923 Eleven acres of land in South Charleston, WVA, are leased to set up a commercial scale plant, which will - in a few years - begin production of several ethylene-based chemicals.
1939 Bakelite Corporation merges into Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation. Bakelite, founded by Dr. Leo Baekeland, was a pioneer in plastics.
1941 Chemical production begins at Texas City, TX.
1947 Union Carbide purchases plant in Institute, WVA, which it had previously built and operated for the government for the production of butadiene and styrene at the start of World War II.
1954 Chemical production at Seadrift, TX, begins.
1957 Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation changes name to Union Carbide Corporation.
1960's The Mining and Metals Division is formed by combining the Metals and Ore Divisions and part of the Nuclear Division.
First chemical products are shipped from Taft, LA, plant in 1966.
1977 UNIPOL Process technology for making polyethylene is announced.
1978 Union Carbide completes major divestiture, selling nearly all of its European petrochemical operations to BP Chemicals Ltd.
1981 Union Carbide sells portion of its metals business.
1983 A major advance expanding the scope of the UNIPOL Process technology to include polypropylene is announced.
1984 In December, a gas leak at a Union Carbide India Limited plant in Bhopal, India, results in tragic loss of life in what is known as the Bhopal disaster. See http://www.bhopal.org, a site set up by a medical clinic and victims' fund; also see http://www.bhopal.com, a website run by the Union Carbide company, for their positions on the tragedy.
1985 In March, the Government of India (GOI) enacts the Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster Act that enables the GOI to act as the legal representative of the victims in claims arising of or related to the Bhopal disaster.
1986 Union Carbide divests a number of businesses: films packaging, major portions of metals business, battery products, specialty polymers and composites, home and automotive products and agricultural products business.
1989 Carbon products and industrial gases businesses become subsidiaries on Jan. 1. Carbon products business is renamed UCAR Carbon Company and industrial gas business is named Union Carbide Industrial Gases Inc.
Union Carbide and Union Carbide India Limited enter into a $470 million legal settlement with the Government of India, which represented all claimants in the Bhopal gas tragedy case. The settlement is affirmed by the Supreme Court of India, which describes it as "just, equitable and reasonable," and settles all claims arising out of the incident.
1991 Mitsubishi Corporation buys 50% stake in UCAR Carbon; UCAR Carbon later becomes a publicly traded independent company.
1992 Union Carbide Industrial Gases is spun-off as an independent company. Its name changes to Praxair, Inc.
1994 Sale of Union Carbide's 50.9% interest in Union Carbide India Limited to McLeod Russell is completed and the approximately $90 million from the sale is donated to a charitable trust to build a hospital in Bhopal for the victims.
1995 Union Carbide and Polimeri Europa S.r.l., form a 50-50 ethylene/polyethylene joint venture to produce polyethylene for the European market.
Union Carbide and two partners (Petrochemical Industries Company and Boubyan Petrochemical, both of Kuwait) form Equate Petrochemical Company to build and operate a petrochemicals complex in Kuwait. Products include ethylene, polyethylene and ethylene glycol.
1998 UCC and Petronas (the national oil company of Malaysia) form a joint venture to build a new petrochemical complex in Malaysia to produce ethylene oxide and its derivatives and oxo alcohols and oxo derivatives.
1999 On August 4, Union Carbide and The Dow Chemical Company announce an $11.6 billion transaction that would result in Union Carbide becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company.
2001 On February 6, Union Carbide Corporation becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company.
2006 Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York upholds the dismissal of the remaining claims in the 7-year-old Sajido Bano case versus Union Carbide Corporation, thereby denying plaintiffs' motions for class certification, property damages and remediation of the Bhopal plant site in India by Union Carbide. The ruling reaffirms UCC's long-held positions.
[edit] Bhopal Tragedy
The 1984 gas leak in Bhopal was a terrible tragedy and Union Carbide Corporation worked diligently to provide aid to the victims and set up a process to resolve their claims. All claims arising out of the release were settled 17 years ago with the approval of the Supreme Court of India.
The Bhopal plant was owned and operated by Union Carbide India, Limited (UCIL), an Indian company in which Union Carbide Corporation held just over half the stock. Indian financial institutions and thousands of private investors in India held the rest of the stock. The plant was designed, built and managed by UCIL using Indian consultants and workers. In 1994, Union Carbide sold its half interest in UCIL to MacLeod Russell (India) Limited of Calcutta, and UCIL was renamed Eveready Industries India, Limited (Eveready Industries). After the disaster, plant owner UCIL obtained permission from the government to conduct clean-up work at the site. Later, Eveready Industries continued this remediation effort until 1998, when the state government of Madhya Pradesh assumed control of the site and its remediation.
As a result of the sale of its shares in UCIL, Union Carbide retained no interest in - or liability for - the Bhopal site. The proceeds of the UCIL sale were placed in a charitable trust and exclusively used to fund a hospital in Bhopal, which now provides specialist care to victims of the tragedy.
Shortly after the gas release, Union Carbide launched an aggressive effort to identify the cause. Its conclusion: The gas leak could only have been caused by deliberate sabotage. Someone purposely put water in the gas storage tank, causing a massive chemical reaction. Process safety systems had been put in place that would have kept the water from entering into the tank by accident.
For more information about the Bhopal tragedy, see www.bhopal com.
But if you want to know the real story, see www.bhopal.org.
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