Hoechst Celanese has three business divisions at its Bishop plant:
The payroll for the 1,050-employee staff is about $75 million a year, and the company also hires between 400 and 500 contract workers each year. The company's annual production is valued at about $700 million, Stephens said.
No major expansions are planned at the Bishop plant in 1997, but the company will embark upon some streamlining projects, improving operations to increase capacity, he said.
While demand for engineering plastics is expected to continue to be strong, a dampened demand for basic chemicals should level off in 1997, Stephens said. Steady growth is expected to continue in pharmaceuticals.
"There are changes going on worldwide within Hoechst," said Stephens, referring to Hoechst's recent announcement to buy French drugmaker Roussel-Uclaf. "But they shouldn't have any detrimental impact on this plant. We look for another good year in 1997."
"Our industry is basically at a standstill, and we're waiting for economic conditions in the world to improve," said Frank Newchurch, plant manager for the 870-employee Reynolds Metals facility in San Patricio County.
The company is not planning any capital investments for 1997, but beyond that, the future looks bright when economic growth improves in Eastern Europe, Russia, China and other Asian markets, Newchurch said.
On the production side, Reynolds, like other chemical companies, continues to take hits with higher natural gas prices. In December, for example, when natural gas prices reached a peak, the natural gas component of Reynolds production cost rose from about 15 percent to 30 percent.
"We're particularly troubled by the very high prices that have occurred," Newchurch said. "It's a big-time problem. But we think it will move back toward more normal pricing as we approach midyear."
Despite these issues, Newchurch said the company doesn't expect layoffs. "The markets are really the big issue and, of course, the prices within the markets."
The capital investment would continue a line of activity at the plant. In December, the plant, in a $25 million retrofit of an existing unit, brought on line a unit that produces Dynel, a Du Pont product used in making a polymer that replaces hydrocarbons as an aerosol propellant.
The main product at the Ingleside plant -- making up about half of the production -- is Du Pont's fluorochemical, Suva, an alternative to the Ffreon refrigerant used in automobiles.
"The outlook for this site is very, very promising as it relates to attracting new investment because of our excellent past performance and safety record," Ellis said. The plant employs 250 regular staff and about 100 contract workers.
"The biggest concerns for us here are in the short-term, natural gas (prices), and the long-term, our position as a Corpus Christi entity in the water (shortage) situation."
Du Pont recently improved its boiler system to reduce water consumption by about 20 percent, Ellis said.
With 275 OxyChem employees and about 200 contract employees, the plant produces ethylene, propylene, benzene and butadiene. The ethylene feeds the OxyChem-Ingleside plant.
Gibson said the chemical market is expected to revive in late 1997.
Meanwhile, the plant continues its community efforts. A community ballfield complex built by OxyChem will be upgraded with lights on another field, and about 30 acres of land across from Tuloso-Midway High School will be donated for youth practice fields, Gibson said.
The project on Up River Road, east of Valero Refinery, should be ready to start production by mid-1998, said Charlie James, senior business manager for Air Liquide's refining market group. It will employ about 10 people.
Air Liquide has been expanding in South Texas in recent months. Last year, it built a pipeline between Bishop and Corpus Christi as part of a long-term contract to supply Valero Refining Co. with high-purity hydrogen, at about 15 million standard cubic feet per day.
Air Liquide plans to supply 24 million standard cubic feet per day of hydrogen to Qualitech Steel Corp.'s iron carbide facility, but the plant will also create additional hydrogen supply for the Corpus Christi refining markets, James said. The project manager is Francois Fuentes.
Houston-based Air Liquide America operates a 1,600-mile pipeline network along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coasts, which delivers industrial gases to more than 130 petrochemical and refinery customers. The pipeline extends to Ingleside, where the company operates an air separation plant.
Flockhart said he expects natural gas prices to level off in 1997, and demand for plastics to rebound from a falloff in late 1996 to create a reasonable profit.
Coastal Javelina is a joint venture between Coastal Corp., Valero Energy Corp. and Kerr-McGee Corp. and is located near Corpus Christi's refineries.
Coastal Javelina takes hydrocarbon gases produced as a byproduct in refineries and creates high-quality plastic monomers that can be used as a feedstock in chemical plants.
Coastal has a permanent staff of about 60, with about 30 to 35 contract workers hired each year, Flockhart said. Production is about 25,000 barrels per day. The company is not planning any major expansions in 1997, although it will perform some modifications that will improve efficiency and quality, he said.
American Chrome, combined with a sister company in the United Kingdom, is the largest producer of chrome chemicals in the world. It is part of Harcross Chemical Group of England.
For 1997, the local company anticipates strong worldwide demand for its product as other facilities have closed.
"The outlook for 1997 is very good," said Jon Moon, president of American Chrome. "Production capacity and demand are very close on a world basis."
Last year, American Chrome installed a new electrically driven process in the plant that requires less heat and pressure in turning sodium chromate into sodium dichromate, Moon said.
In the next three years, American Chrome plans to upgrade its primary kiln roasting process where chromite ore and soda ash are combined to produce the sodium chromate that is then processed into sodium dichromate, Moon said.
American Chrome employs 190 full-time workers and about 50 to 60 contract workers, Moon said. It produces more than 50,000 tons a year of chrome chemicals, worth nearly $100 million.
Compiled by Assistant Business Editor Deborah W. Fisher