The common link between Dow, BF Goodrich and BASF, was CSR Chemicals, the three companies being respectively known as CSRC-Dow, BF Goodrich-CSRC, and Badocol Pty. Ltd., the latter was initially a joint company between BASF, Dow and CSR Chemicals. The impetus for each of these companies' involvement was the need to have Australian production in order to protect, or in some cases obtain, Australian markets in the face of substantial tariff protection, which favoured local production instead of imports. Each brought special and sophisticated technology which was backed by significant research and development effort from the parent companies in USA and Germany. In most cases, there were significant increases in capacity. In 1970, Altona Petrochemical Company built a new steam cracking facility based on ethane feedstock which had become available from the natural gas fields discovered in Bass Strait in the mid 1960s. Ethane cracking was a technology new to Australia.

The driving forces. The start-up of a green-site petrochemical plant is a major undertaking dependent on coincidence of a series of conditions -a market opportunity, the availability of technology, management expertise, access to raw materials, confidence in the political and social environment and, of course, the profit motive. All these conditions were met in Victoria at Altona in the 1960s. Stanvac could raise the necessary funds and had a uniquely favourable access to liquid petroleum feedstocks; but as the ownership of foreign oil fields changed later from the oil companies to the Governments of the Middle East and elsewhere, this favourable access disappeared. From Stanvac's viewpoint, the project was 'crude oil driven'.

From the viewpoint of the several international chemical companies, the driving force was an opportunity to expand into the Australian markets, which would have been foreclosed to them if they had been pre-empted in the venture. The companies correctly assumed that after they had established the venture with their own management resources, they could train Australians to run the business. They also had confidence in the political and social stability in Australia. They may, however, have misjudged the industrial relations climate. In the event, the companies reasonably judged the potential business opportunity. Because of an early economic downturn in Australia, and partly because of rather optimistic market forecasts, the projects were unprofitable during their early years. Subsequently, they were modestly profitable, although certainly not a bonanza.

There have been changes over the years. The most notable of these were the withdrawal of CSR Chemicals Ltd. from the various joint companies and the transfer of the Union Carbide plant to Compol Pty. Ltd., a joint company between Exxon Chemical and Mobil Chemical. Major changes to products have been the addition of linear low density polyethylene to the Compel range, the cessation of production of ethylene dichloride, chlorine and caustic soda by Dow, who have added styrene butadiene dispersions, epoxy resins, propylene glycol, polyols and foam polystyrene production, Hoechst Australia's production of polypropylene and polyvinyl acetate dispersion manufacture and the addition of textile, leather and paper auxiliaries to the BASF Australia production range.

Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering