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Engelhard Corporation is a former American Fortune 500 company headquartered in Iselin, New Jersey, USA. It is credited with developing the first production catalytic converter. In 2006, the German chemical manufacturer BASF bought Engelhard for $US5 billion (5,000,000,000).

Early history

The company was started by Charles W. Engelhard, Sr. in 1902^[1] when he purchased the Charles F. Croselmire Company in Newark, New Jersey. He subsequently founded the American Platinum Works in 1903 and acquired several other companies. In 1904, he purchased Baker & Co., a platinum smelting and refining business located in Newark and in 1905, he established Hanovia Chemical and Manufacturing Company also in Newark. Engelhard became the world's largest refiner and fabricator of platinum metals, gold and silver, a producer of silver and silver alloys in mill forms, operator of the world's largest precious metals smelter. They also developed liquid gold for decorative applications^{[citation needed]}.

Merger and spinoff of Phibro

In 1958, Engelhard's son Charles Jr. consolidated the family’s holdings to form Engelhard Industries, Inc. as a publicly held company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1963, Engelhard, under the advisement of Lazard Frères, took a 20 percent interest in Minerals & Chemicals Philipp (MCP), a recently formed partnership between a small producer of nonmetallic minerals such as kaolin and fuller's earth, and Philipp Brothers, a trading firm specializing in the buying and selling of ores on the international market. Engelhard executed the transaction through a stock swap, giving up 8 percent of Engelhard as partial payment for the 20 percent interest in MCP.

Sales in MCP took off soon afterwards, mostly from Philipp Brothers' fast-growing ore trading. In 1964 it had sales of $US447 million, and by 1966 sales reached $US709 million. Even though Engelhard Industries did only about 40 percent of that figure, it was able, in September 1967, to work out a merger of the two companies that left the Engelhard family controlling about 40 percent of the new company. The new entity, which was called Engelhard Minerals & Chemicals Corporation (EMCC), was structured into three divisions: Minerals & Chemicals, which processed non-metallic minerals; Engelhard Industries, which refined and fabricated precious metals; and Philipp Brothers. Nearly one-half of the company's 1967 net income of $28 million was generated by the Philipp trading division, with the Engelhard metal processing contributing 34 percent and minerals and chemicals about 19 percent.

Philipp's trading continued to enjoy phenomenal growth as the world turned to spot traders to move scarce natural resources around the globe. By 1972, EMCC's sales hit $US2 billion, about 80 percent of it supplied by Philipp, and in 1974 revenue reached $5 billion. By 1981, Philipp Brothers earned 89 percent of the total corporation's $US26.6 billion in revenues and 88 percent of its $US532.7 million in profits. Management in the slow growing minerals-and-chemicals division, along with those in precious metals, felt overshadowed by their trading counterparts. This led to the spinoff of Philipp Brothers (later called Phibro), and renaming what was left the Engelhard Corporation.

Later history

Engelhard operated a Minerals & Chemicals Division and an Engelhard Industries Division with corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, New Jersey. In 1984, the company was realigned to consist of a Specialty Chemicals Division and a Specialty Metals Division. Engelhard expanded significantly through growth, acquisitions and joint ventures. Acquisitions included the Freeport Kaolin Company in 1985; most of the business of the Harshaw/Filtrol Partnership in 1988; the auto catalysts and petroleum catalysts businesses of Solvay Catalysts GmbH, in 1992 and 1994, respectively; the Mearl Corporation in 1996; the catalyst business of Mallinckrodt Inc. in 1998; Süd Chemie’s fats and oils catalyst business in 2001; and the Collaborative Group, a personal care company, in 2004.

On May 30, 2006, Engelhard was taken over by BASF after the board agreed for the takeover of BASF. BASF paid $US39 per share. The transaction totaled $5 billion.

On August 2, 2006, BASF began to rename Engelhard worldwide. This started in the USA with BASF Catalysts LLC.

On April 1, 2010, BASF Catalysts LLC became part of BASF Corporation.

Environmental record

Catalytic-converter-equipped vehicles have helped cut other air pollutants by more than 3 billion tons worldwide between 1975 and 2000; of this 1.5 billion short tons was in the United States. Automobiles meet emission standards that required reductions of up to 98+ percent for HC, 96 percent for CO, and 95 percent for NOx compared to the uncontrolled levels of automobiles sold in the 1960s. Despite the fact that fuel use increased approximately 50 percent and vehicle miles traveled nationwide increased by 150 percent between 1970 and 1998, CO, VOC, and NOx emissions from motor vehicles in 1998 decreased by over 44 million short tons compared to 1970 levels.^[2]

[...]

Engelhard Produces Variety

WOODBRIDGE TOWNSHIP ‐ Engelhard Industries. a division of the 5-year-old Engelhard Minerals & Chemicals Corp., said to be the nation's largest refiner and fabricator of precious metals, moved its headquarters Friday from Murray Hill to here in a consolidation move.

The new building is situated at 70 Wood Ave. in the township's Iselin section, next to Engelhard's research and development center in Menlo Park, Edison Township. It ls adjacent to Metro Park Station and the Garden State Parkway.

ENGELHARD Minerals & Chemicals Corp. is based in New York. Another division, the Minerals & Chemicals Division, is situated across Wood avenue south of the new building.

Engelhard Industries has production facilities in Carteret, Newark, East Newark and Union, as well as in other states and abroad.

It is leasing two floors in the new four-story building which contains 92.000 square feet.

The parent company also is scheduled to move its headquarters and Philipp Brothers Division in New York from 299 Park Ave. to the McGraw-Hill Building at 1221 Avenue of the Americas in Rockefeller Center on May 23.

ENGELHARD has leased four floors of the McGraw‐Hill Building. The 155.000 square feet of space is nearly double that of its existing Park avenue quarters.

Its Philipp Brothers Division is said to be the world's leading independent marketer of industrial raw materials. including ores, metals, alloys, minerals, fuels and fertilizers.

The division contributed about $5.7 billion of the company‘s 1976 net sales and operating revenues of $6.5 billion. according to Milton F. Rosenthal. president and chief operating officer.

"In the 10years since Philipp Brothers moved to its current address its total revenues have multiplied seven-fold." Rosenthal said. "As can be

expected. its personnel increased substantially in number to accommodate the growth in its business.

“THE management of Philipp Brothers is convinced that despite the known. difficult problems of New York and the decision of many others to move their offices elsewhere. the city remains the ideal international crossroads for its operations."

Engelhard employs 10,000 around the world. Of this total. 6,000 work in the U.S., 1.660 in New Jersey and 500 in New York. It is one of the largest companies in New Jersey for sales and employment, and is listed as the 28th largest company in the US. by Forbes rating system.

For the first quarter of 1977. ended March 31, it reported revenues of $1.5 billion. against $1.3 billion for the same quarter last year. Net earnings for the quarter were $28,970,000, compared with $30,742,000 for the same 1976 period.

ROSENTHAL said the net earnings and pre-tax earnings of $45,012,000 for the first quarter were the company's second highest results for a first quarter, trailing by 5.8 and 5.3 per cent, respectively. the record earnings of the first quarter of 1976.

“ The year 1976 was the most successful business year in the company's history . " Rosenthal said. “Record highs were achieved in net earnings, earnings per share of common stock, stockholders' equity, working capital, net sales and operating revenues, total assets and cash dividends to stockholders.

RETURN on stockholders' equity. another important criterion of performance. averaged 22.7 per cent.

" It is noteworthy that these achievements occurred in an economic environment that was inhospitable to most global companies in the natural resource industries.

“After a favorable beginning, the economy of the United States bogged down merged with Minerals & in the latter part of the year, throughout 1976.

“There are many indications that the economy in this country is strengthening. however, while that of other countries still trails behind. If these domestic trends continue. similar developments abroad should follow soon."

ENGELHARD produces about 40,000 products of which thousands use gold. silver and platinum group metals. It refines all the precious metals.

It sells them through a global network of more than Ill sales offices. Its chief areas of operations are in the U S . and Western Eu‐ rope. with added important activities in Canada. Japan and Australia.

Its products are used in nearly every home and business in the U.S..

For example. the silver used in most toasters' electrical contacts ia produced by Engelhard. and also the gold used to decorate most fine china and dinnerware. Even slick magazines use a fine clay made by Engelhard to heighten the gloss of its paper.

AMONG the fields its serves are the chemical. automotive. ceramic. pollution control. mill product. dental. jewelry. electrical. electronics. refining. glass and plastics industries. Many of its products also are used in research and development work.

Engelhard even has a private minting facility in Carteret which produces commemorative coins. anniversary medallions and other special precious metal pieces for collectors. mutations and governments. Many of the Canadian olympic medals were made here.

The company was founded in Newark in 1875 by the late Charles W. Engelhard Sr.. a German immigrant. to 1902. he purchased the Charles F. Croselmire Co. in Newark and with it founded the American Platinum Works the following year.

BAKER & Co.. a Newark smelting and refining business. became a part of the company in 1904, and Hano‐ via Chemical and Manufacturing Co. a year later. This growth and diversification continued until the separate firms were consolidated in 1958 as Engelhard Industries Inc.

After other changes, the Engelhard organization merged with the Minerals & Chemicals Philipp Corp. In 1967. The Company's name was then changed to Engelhard Minerals & Chemicals Corp.

Engelhard's son. the late Charles w. Engelhard Jr.. formerly chairman of the board of directors. died in 1971. The company currently doesn’t have a board chairman.

The Alliance of Chemicals and Electronics

Chemical products used today in electronics seem, at first glance, to bea very ordinary kind. They are different from those generally offered, however, by reason of the extraordinary degree of purity which their producers must achieve in order to satisfy the stringent requirements of the electronics industry. The maximum dose of impurities tolerated in monocrystalline silicon amounts to one part in 10".

Polycrystalline silicon, produced from silane (SiH,) or trichlorosilane (SiHCl,) forms the upstream part of the semiconductor sector. Monocrystalline silicon is extracted from polycrystalline silicon and sliced into wafers 25microns thick and 8 to 10centimeters in diameter.

Hoechst's subsidiary Wacker is the world's leading polycrystalline silicon producer, with a capacity exceeding 2,000 tons. The overcapacities that began affecting the electronics industry in the early 19803 forced Monsanto, one of the largest wafer producers,to slow down its silicon production units in 1984. It has since sold this business to Germany's Hiils. Rhone-Poulenc, which had ambitions in the area but lacked the right technology, has withdrawn from the business.

There are enough suppliers of this type of silicon, including, for instance, Dow-Coming, Dynamit Nobel, Shin-Etsu, Tokuyama Soda, Motorola, and Texas Instruments.A possible substitute for the silicon used to produce wafers is gallium arsenide, in which Rhone-Poulenc, 101, and Shinetsu are already involved.

This situation shows how closely suppliers of electronic chemicals need to monitor the very rapid developments taking place in the area; otherwise, their productions r u n the risk of becoming obsolete before the full payoff.

Photosensitive products are also used for the production of wafers. These photoresists polymerize through X-ray treatment. They are called positive or negative according to whether or not they are soluble in solvents when exposed to light. The miniaturization of printed circuits tends to give a boost to positive resins. Germany's Hoechst has pioneered in such photosensitive resins. They are also supplied by Eastman Kodak, Olin Hunt, Ciba-Geigy, E. Merck and Tokyo Ohka Kogyo.

A great number of chemical firms have set up special divisions to manufacture products for the electronics industry, essentially through acquisitions. For example, Du Pont bought Berg Electronics in 1972, and a little later Olin purchased Philip A. Hunt. Some companies, such as Du Pont, Olin, and Ciba-Geigy, have chosen an "integrated systems" approach in this area by providing as wide a range as possible of products and services for the electronics industry. Others have elected to remain strictly within the special areas in which they excel through long experience or proper chemical integration. Thus it was the work carried out before the war with AEG that led BASFto make its range of magnetic tapes and gave it the supremacy in chromates which it shares with Du Pont. H oechst came to silicon through Wacker and to gases through Messer Griesheim, and now provides, besides high-purity special gases, a range of photosensitive polymers. RhonePoulenc became involved in printed circuits through its polyimide resins and Ciba-Geigy through its epoxy resins.

Most of the companies already producing diethylene glycol terephthalate polymers have launched into the applications of polyester film to video and data processing. Hoechst through its Kalle subsidiary, ICI. Rhone-Poulenc, Du Pont, Japan's Toray, Teijin, and Toyobo, the latter in association with Rhone-Poulencin Nippon Magphane.

Although Rhone-Poulenc has given up direct upstream development after fruitless association with Dysan in magnetic supports and Siltec in silicon, it still believes it can use its know-how in rare earthsto develop their electronics applications. Today, Rhone-Poulenc is the indisputable leader in rare earths, accounting for 40 percent of the world market. At its units in La Rochelle, France, and Freeport, Texas, it is capable of extracting from lanthanide sands the fourteen elements they contain. Over the last few years, samarium, for instance, has become essential for microelectronics to the same degree that europium and yttrium oxides already are for color television.

Whether they approach electronics directly, or through chemicals, or both, chemical companies involved in this business can hope to reap the fruits of their efforts in this area, providing, however, that the sector is spared the technological and economic jolts it has suffered over the past ten years.

Catalysts

Ever since England's Humphry Davy observed in the early 18005 that water was formed when hydrogen and oxygen react in the presence of a red-hot platinum wire, the phenomenon which Berzelius was to call catalysis has intrigued chemists. The uses of catalysts in industry were first consciously demonstrated by Peregrine Phillips in 1832 when he used platinum to oxidize sulfur dioxide (SO,) to form sulfur trioxide (SO,) and by Frederic Kuhlmannin 1837, when he produced nitric acid from ammonia.

Early in the twentieth century, Germany's Wilhelm Ostwald, France's Paul Sabatier, and America's Irving Langmuir had advanced a step in interpreting the phenomenon of catalysis by showing that it was characterized by an acceleration of the rate of reactions and that it was conditioned by the state of the catalyst's surface. From then on, chemical technology made striking progress through use of catalysts. Between 1905 and 1920, and more particularly in Germany, there was a spurt of new industrial-scale processes, for example, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and BASF's use of vanadium oxide to produce sulfuric acid.

It is no exaggeration to say that without catalysts Germany would have been in noconditionto pursue its war effort until November 1918. Likewise, if Houdry had not developed in the early days of World War II its "catalytic cracking“ process, the United States would have found it very hard to provide its bombers with light fuel. It was also through catalytic reforming that the United States managed to obtain from petroleum the toluene needed to produce TNT between 1941and 1945.

Since then, catalysts have played an essential role, particularly in the production of ethylene oxide from ethylene (Shell, Scientific Design), in the synthesis of hydrogen cyanide and acrylonitrile through ammoxidation (oxidation in the presence of ammonia), of formaldehyde (from oxidation of methanol), and, of course, in the polymerization reactions to produce plastics, elastomers, and synthetic fibers. It is not surprising, underthe circumstances, that a catalyst industry should have developed after World War 11through internal growth or through acquisitions. The very diversity of catalysts and of their uses has necessarily led to a fragmented sector.

Some oil companies became involved in the productionof catalysts because they needed them in their own refineries. Mobil has developed the ZSM 5 catalyst based on zeolite following studies which began as early as 1936 on catalytic cracking; Shell has used its own technology to develop the sales of its catalysts for hydrogenation cracking. Other companies became involved in catalysts because of their precious metals business.Johnson

Matthey, Engelhard, and Degussa applied their know-how in platinum metals to industrial catalysts. Chemical firms, for their part, approached the

area in different ways. I C Imade the most of its acquired know-how, particularlyin methanol and ammonia, by associating with Nalco to form Katalco, a catalyst supplier; American Cyanamid has set up asubsidiary in Holland with Ketjen; Rhone-Poulenc has formed Procatalyse in joint venture with Institut Francaisdu Petrole.

In other cases, the involvement in catalysts has been through acquisitions. W. R. Grace bought Davison Chemical in 1953. and in 1984 Union Carbide purchased Katalistics International, BV. One of the three leading United States companies in cracking catalysts, together with Engelhard and Davison, is Harshaw-Filtrol, which is the result of the merger of subsidiaries of Gulf Oil and Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical that have specialized in the area.

The developers of new processes have found it at times more expedient to set up their own separate entities to supply the catalysts they were advocating. Allied-Signal's subsidiary UOP did so for its platforming; Houdry for its catalytic cracking; Ralph Landau for the silver catalyst used for direct ethylene oxidation, which was marketed by Halcon SD and subsequently taken over by Denka, then by Bayer; and Phillips Chemical for its polyolefin catalysts, sold through its subsidiary, Catalyst Resources.

Through inert supports, a number of firms have succeeded in creating a niche in catalysts ‐ for instance, Crosfield, a subsidiary of Unilever in England and a silica producer; or the German Siidchemie group, which specializes in hydrogenation and polymerizationcatalysts; or again Condea, which producesin West Germany alumina of high purity. The sector also includesa few firms which are only involved in a very special sector. Denmark's Haldor Topsoe makes catalysts for the synthesis of ammonia and methanol; and Lithium Company of America, an FMC subsidiary, produces lithium, while Du Pont makes boron derivatives. Linked to the oil industry, to petrochemicals, and to the large commodity chemicals, the catalyst industry can hardly escape the economic ups and downs affecting these three large sectors. Its clients are understandably both demanding and prudent, for the catalytic system is basic to the good running

of production units. This explains why it is an area of business that is so difficult to penetrate and run profitably. Its structure should therefore remain rather stable even with the development of catalytic exhaust systems. Introduction in the United States and in Europe of unleaded gasoline and the use of bimetallic systems for catalytic reforming should open up new markets for platinum and rhodium.

See 2019-03-17-referenceforbusiness-com-history-engelhard-corporation.pdf / https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_yVKl45k0Q3w0haIEntV3Df48ebY21ea

Immigrant Roots

The company's roots in the precious-metals industry extend back to 1891, the year in which Charles Engelhard immigrated to the United States from his native Germany to work as a foreign sales agent for his employer, a marketer of platinum. Engelhard decided to remain in the United States and soon was able to secure equity positions in a number of precious metals companies, chief among them Baker & Co., platinum; Irvington Smelting, which dealt with gold and silver; Hanovia Company; and American Platinum Works. Engelhard, who inForbes, August 1, 1965, was described by his son as a "tough businessman" and "very Germanic," united the companies into a comprehensive precious-metals fabricator under the name of Engelhard Industries. The Engelhard interests bought, refined, and sold the full range of precious metals, but, with Baker & Co. taking the lead, soon developed a special expertise in platinum.

Platinum is valuable not only for its beauty but because it exhibits a number of unusual and useful physical properties, among them the virtually complete resistance to corrosionby chemicals or heat, and a molecularformation well-suited to various types of catalysis. By the early 1900s Engelhard had begun to exploit the metal's industrial value as well as its importance to the jewelry and dental trades, helping develop its use as a heat resistant liner for chemical vessels and as filaments in electric light bulbs. As platinum was scarce, however, the metals industry did not much pursue its industrial applications. Engelhard Industries remained a supplier of precious metals primarily for ornamentation and dentistry. It was not until the 1920s that a secure supply of platinum encouraged further study of the metal's engineering value. A Canadian mining concern, Inco, formerly called International Nickel Company, demonstrated that platinum could be produced as a byproduct of nickel, thus temporarily stabilizing the supply of platinum and prompting intensive research into its properties. Charles Engelhard became Inco's exclusive dealer of platinum in the United States, and in the early 1930s created a research-and-development department of his own to pioneer new uses for the metal. In conjunction with Du Pont, Engelhard's Baker & Co. came up with a revolutionary process for the manufacture of nitric acid that employed a platinum and rhodium catalyst. The process was soon adopted throughout the chemicals industry. Engelhard Industries began a long evolution that would first transform the company into the world leader in precious-metals fabricating and later encourage its present focus on catalysis in many of its forms.

The 1930s saw the development of the platinum spinnerette, a platinum nozzle perforated by thousands of microscopic holes designed to spin out synthetic fibers for the manufacture of textiles. World War II fostered other uses of platinum, such as the platinum-tipped sparkplug for aircraft engines, able to withstand high temperatures for long periods without corroding. In the early 1950s platinum began to be used in the petroleum industry for the catalysis of high-octane gasoline and to refine heavy crude oils. Engelhard Industries continued to derive the large majority of its sales from nonindustrial markets such as jewelry, but in the 1940s Charles Engelhard added to his growing assortment of companies with the purchase of D.E. Makepeace Company of Massachusetts, makers of gold and silver sheet, tube, and wire; Amersil Company, industrial appliers of fused quartz; and National Electric Instruments Company, a manufacturer of medical instruments. With these and other industrial acquisitions, Engelhard laid the groundwork for the later expansion of his business carried out by his son, Charles Engelhard Jr. Born in 1917, Charles served as a pilot in World War II and afterward joined his father in the metals business. Anxious to make his own mark, young Engelhard soon moved to South Africa and began exploring opportunities in that mineral-rich country, source of much of the world's gold, platinum, and diamonds.

The South African Connection

Until 1971 the history of Engelhard Corporation was largely the story of Charles Engelhard Jr. The founder's son had the unusual good fortune to succeed in both of the roles available to a wealthy scion. He became an international socialite and built his father's company into a far greater success. Upon settling in South Africa, Engelhard started a gold-exporting business to supply his father's companies with raw material, as well as to turn a profit. At the time, gold could not be traded except in the form of art objects, so Engelhard shipped his gold in the shape of dishes, jewelry, and even solid gold pulpit tops, much of which was later melted down by the customer. Engelhard incorporated his firm, Precious Metals Development, in London in 1949, using the services of Robert Fleming & Co. At Fleming & Co. Engelhard met Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, who is believed to have used the portly, gold-toting Engelhard as the model for his famous villain, Auric Goldfinger. When his father died in 1950, the younger Engelhard assumed control of a complex, heterogenous mix of companies headquartered in Newark, New Jersey. He once again made the United States his home, bringing with him connections with many of the leading figures in South African mining.

Engelhard found that his autocratic father had run his various metals businesses virtually without administrative help, and set about centralizing authority while also delegating its daily implementation. In 1953 he brought in Gordon Richdale as president of Engelhard Industries, the main operating company for the family interests. Richdale had experience in mining in the Transvaal region of South Africa, and was a good friend of Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, the chairman of that country's dominant mining company, Anglo American Corporationof South Africa. Engelhard had become friends with Oppenheimer's son Harry as well, so when the Oppenheimers needed a partner for a 1957 bailout of Central Mining and Investment Corporation they turned to Engelhard. Central Mining was a large, London-based oil and mining company with extensive South African holdings, in danger of a hostile takeover, which it hoped to prevent with Engelhard's help. For a relatively small amount of cash, $3.5 million, Engelhard was able to gain a 30 percent share of Rand American Investments Limited, an Oppenheimer creation that then won the proxy fight at Central Mining and took control of its 12 gold mines, timber holdings, lime quarries, and 13 newspapers, with a total estimated value of $500 million. Charles Engelhard, Jr. was named chairman of Rand American, having parlayed a youthful lark in South Africa into an intimate partnership with one of the most powerful families in international business.

The South African venture was kept separate from Engelhard's stable of U.S. companies, which in 1957 had sales of $173 million, more than one-third of them derived from platinum fabricating. Engelhard Industries also did about $32 million in gold fabricating, and $55 million in silver, making it a world leader in all three of the major precious-metals markets. Industrial applications of precious metals were on the rise, and Engelhard Industries was well positioned to profit from their growing importance. Charles Engelhard, Jr. also continued to pursue his valuable South African connections. As part of the 1957 takeover of Central Mining, Engelhard and Harry Oppenheimer had agreed to a stock swap, each of them taking 10 percent of the other's family holding company. Engelhard thus gained a very valuable piece of Ernest Oppenheimer and Sons, the force behind Anglo American Corporation and the De Beers diamond mines, while Harry Oppenheimer took a similar chunk of Engelhard Hanovia, the family-owned corporation that, in turn, controlled 72 percent of Engelhard Industries. The trade would appear to have been one-sided, as Anglo American was a much larger concern than the Engelhard interests. Over the next two decades, however, Harry Oppenheimer continued to buy stock in Engelhard Hanovia and by 1970 came to own 70 percent, at which time his investment proved to have been very wise indeed.

In the meantime, Engelhard upped his investments in South Africa. In 1958 he set up the American-South African Investment Company Limited, with $34 million in assets. American-South African was an investment trust trading in South African gold stocks and was the first South African company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. As chairman of Rand Mines, one of the former Central Mining companies, Engelhard greatly expanded the firm's holding into uranium, coal, and copper refining; and in 1961 he paid $17 million for two gold mines owned by Kennecott Copper, rolling all of his South African holdings into a new joint investment company with the Oppenheimers called Rand Selection Corporation Limited. Engelhard had by that time become a figure of recognized importance in South African affairs, an honor that brings with it involvement in all of the moral and political difficulties besetting that country. After the Sharpeville massacre of 1960, Engelhard became more open in his criticisms of apartheid and somewhat curtailed his active investment in the country. Engelhard did not seem to bother himself with apologies or explanations of the relation between his fortune and apartheid. As a businessman and as a strong supporter and confidante of Democratic politicians, he appears to have viewed apartheid as inefficient and doomed but did not further concern himself with its injustices.

A Major Deal, 1963

In 1963 Engelhard put together the deal that would determine the future of his company. At the urging of Andre Meyer of the investment-banking house Lazard Freres, Engelhard took a 20 percent interest in Minerals & Chemicals Philipp (MCP), a recently formed partnership between a rather small producer of nonmetallic minerals such as kaolin and fuller's earth, and Philipp Brothers, a powerful trading firm specializing in the buying and selling of ores on the international market. Again Engelhard made a stock swap an important part of the deal, giving up 8 percent of Engelhard Hanovia as partial payment for his 20 percent interest in MCP, which in 1964 had sales of $447 million, the bulk of it generated by Philipp Brothers's fast-growing ore trading. In fact, Engelhard's purchase of MCP stock soon proved prescient, as worldwide demand for precious and industrial metals began to take off, and Philipp's sales skyrocketed, gaining as much as 45 percent in a single year.

By 1966 MCP sales had reached $709 million, while Engelhard Industries did only about 40 percent of that figure. Engelhard nevertheless worked out a merger of the two companies, in September 1967, creating Engelhard Minerals & Chemicals Corporation (EMCC), with the Engelhard family controlling about 40 percent of the new giant's stock. Given the relative size of the partners in this transaction, and Harry Oppenheimer's increasing role in the Engelhard family interests, it is probable that the merger was made possible by the financial power of Oppenheimer's Anglo American Corporation. EMCC was already a large corporation, but its potential was not yet apparent to many observers. Nearly one-half of the company's 1967 net income of $28 million was generated by the Philipp trading division, with the Engelhard metal processing contributing 34 percent, and minerals and chemicals about 19 percent. Philipp's trading worked on a small profit margin but was soon to enjoy phenomenal growth, as the world turned increasingly to spot traders to move scarce natural resources around the globe quickly and efficiently. By 1972 EMCC's sales hit $2 billion, about 80 percent of it supplied by Philipp, and in 1974 revenue reached the astonishing figure of $5 billion and continued to climb.

Charles Engelhard, Jr. did not live to see the success of his combination, however. When the "platinum king," as he was called, died in early 1971, his family's Engelhard Hanovia owned 43 percent of the increasingly profitable EMCC; but by that time 70 percent of Hanovia was controlled by Anglo American, which promptly exchanged its Hanovia shares for 30 percent of EMCC, leaving the Engelhard family with 10 percent of EMCC and all of its other interests. The friendship of Engelhard and Oppenheimer thus ended with a rough parity of gain--with the help of Oppenheimer, Engelhard had built an enormous metals combination, but when the dust settled it was Oppenheimer who would reap the long-term benefits.

In the absence of an Engelhard heir interested in business, Milton Rosenthal was appointed chairman of EMCC. Rosenthal had been president of EMCC since the 1967 merger, and after Engelhard's death inaugurated a tightening of controls and general overhaul of the company. In part, this was an inevitable concomitant of the executive change, which saw Engelhard's largely blue-blood management give way to a team dominated by Philipp Brothers's trading veterans, chief among them Ludwig Jesselson. Neither side of the merger particularly enjoyed working with the other, and when the MCP men gained control of the company many of the Engelhard people left or were fired, and an air of hardworking sobriety settled over the firm. Rosenthal and his advisors cut back on luxuries but expanded mightily their trading business, which, soon after the 1973 oil crisis, began handling oil on the spot market. Commodities traded on the spot market, as opposed to the futures market, are for immediate delivery. From modest beginnings, the oil spot market quickly reached critical importance during the 1970s, a decade in which all natural resources seemed in short supply, and by 1978 Philipp was trading $4.5 billion in oil alone. Its $9 billion in total sales dwarfed the minerals-and-chemicals and precious-metals business of its partners, even as the latter became increasingly successful in the development of fluid catalytic cracking materials and exhaust emission control converters.

Philipp Brothers owed its success primarily to the scarcity of its commodities and the skill of its traders. By keeping tabs on the needs of both producers and consumers of over 100 kinds of raw materials, Philipp was able to buy and sell large quantities of goods for small but almost instant profits, and even offered its clients the use of a company bank in Switzerlandto help finance the construction of new plants or to make unusually large purchases. As the markets for raw materials became increasingly widespread, Philipp's business continued to grow at a fantastic rate, and from 1978 to 1980 EMCC's sales jumped from $10 billion to $26.5 billion, about 90 percent of which was due to Philipp. So great a disparity between former partners naturally strained corporate relations, as minerals-andchemicals people along with those in precious metals felt overshadowed by their trading counterparts and had trouble justifying time spent managing assets that grew at so comparatively slow a rate. In the spring of 1981, therefore, the metals-and-minerals and precious-metals divisions of EMCC were spun off as a new, publicly traded entity to be called Engelhard Corporation, while Philipp Brothers went its way as Phibro toward an eventual merger with Salomon Inc. Harry Oppenheimer's Anglo American Corporation maintained a 30 percent stake in both companies, a double wild card waiting to be played at any time.

Engelhard Starts Anew

The new Engelhard Corporation set about revising its mix of sales. In 1983, for example, when the company did about $2 billion in sales, 85 percent of the sales were generated by the precious-metals business, but the much smaller minerals and chemicals division produced 60 percent of Engelhard's net income. As a result, in that year the company began referring to itself as a specialty chemicals firm, and two years later regrouped its businesses according to function rather than the raw material involved. Thus, all catalytic businesses became part of the specialty-chemicals division, regardless of whether they made use of kaolin or platinum for their catalysis; while the specialty-metals division worked strictly with metals technology and metals management services. This gradual redefinition and housecleaning continued up to the 1990s, with Engelhard announcing that it would sell off some of its remaining gold and silver businesses and begin deep cuts in its salaried staff, in anticipation of which the company took a special charge of $160 million in 1989.

At the end of the 1980s Engelhard Corporation derived the lion's share of its sales from the remaining portion of its precious-metals fabrication business, $1.6 billion, but far more profitable was the catalysts-and-chemicals division, which earned $43 million on sales of $450 million in 1989. Much of that was generated by fluid catalytic cracking materials made for the petroleum industry. Even more promising was the performance of the company's third product grouping, now known as pigments and additives. This group, a descendent of the EMCC merger partner that produces paper coatings and pigments for the plastic and paint industries, along with several businesses purchased in 1988 from the Harshaw/Filtrol Partnership, netted $53 million on only $360 million in sales. It was no surprise, therefore, that despite its heritage as one of the world's premier users of precious metals, Engelhard was steadily moving toward the more lucrative fields of catalysis and specialty chemicals.

Ups and Downs During the 90s

Throughout the 1990s, Engelhard tried to grow through acquisitions and the introduction of new products. Revenues hit a high in 1990 of $2.93 billion, but would not reach that level again until 1996. Under CEO Orin Smith in 1992 Engelhard acquired the remaining 50 percent of its German auto catalyst subsidiary, Kali-Chemie; formed Salem Engelhard in a joint partnership with Salem Industries, a maker of pollution-control systems; formed Heraeus Engelhard Electrochemistry with Heraeus Inc.; and founded Acreon Catalysts with Procatalyse. In 1993 it sold off its interest in metal plating firm M&T Harshaw and in 1994 struck a deal with ICC Technologies, Inc. to develop and market air conditioning and air-treatment systems based on Engelhard's new desiccanttechnology, in which the use of ozone-depleting refrigerants could be avoided by drying the air before it is cooled. The same year, it also purchased the assets of Solvay Catalysts GmbH of Germany and of General Plasma, Advanced Plasma, and Jet-Com, manufacturers of thermal spray coatings for emissions-control applications which Engelhard intended to develop into a major line of emission systems technology products for cars, trucks, and buses. As part of a major reorganization plan, in 1994 Engelhard closed, relocated, or consolidated five of its U.S. facilities and two European sites.

In 1995 Engelhard formed a joint venture named Metreonwith W.R. Grace to develop advanced metallic-substrate catalytic converters for the auto industry, purchased the rest of its Salem Engelhard joint venture, expanded the production capacity of its Acreon venture, and formed a joint venture with CLAL, a French precious metal fabricator. It also expanded from its historical participation in the precious metals brokerage industry by entering base metals dealing and brokering through a new subsidiary, Engelhard International Ltd. and founded Engelhard Power Marketing to resell electric power to U.S. utilities. In 1996, it formed Engelhard-Highland to produce high-performance color pigments in India, formed a joint venture with its Japanese affiliate N.E. Chemcat to manufacture auto catalysts in Thailand for sale throughout southeast Asia, and acquired the assets of infraredgas sensor manufacturer Telaire Systems, which it renamed Engelhard Sensor Technologies. In May 1996, it made its largest acquisition ever by acquiring Mearl Corporation, a maker of pearlescent pigments and iridescent film for the automotive and cosmetic industries.

Engelhard's major product launches in the 1990s included a "molecular sieve" water filter capable of significantly reducing contamination of household tap water, an auto emissions-control device that traps pollutinghydrocarbons during the two minutes after engine startup in which the catalytic converter is ineffective, a new trimetal catalyst technology named Trimax, a new catalyst for the heavy feedstocks demanded by Pacific Rim refineries, and an all-palladium auto catalyst that could be placed closer to the engine and activated more quickly. Perhaps its most promising innovation, however, was Prem-Air, a catalytic filter that when coated on a car's radiator promised to destroy 90 percent of the ozone passing over it. However, after testing the product on 20 of its cars Ford Motor decided that Prem-Air was not as effective as advertised and decided not to adopt it. Despite the blow, Engelhard continued to refine the product for other uses and positioned itself to become not only a supplier of auto emission catalysts but of "total solutions," including sensors, multicomponent packages, and catalyst substrates.

In 1996 Engelhard enjoyed its sixth consecutive year of record earnings and looked hopefully to emerging catalytics and pigments demand in Eastern Europe and the Pacific Rim. By the mid-1990s 41 percent of Engelhard's sales were outside the United States and its engineered materialsand commodities dealing operation was accounting for 60 percent of its revenues. The manufacture of catalysts/chemicals and pigments/additives together accounted for the remainder.

Principal Subsidiaries:Engelhard-Kalichemie (Germany); Hankuk-Engelhard (Republic of Korea; 50%); N.E. Chemcat (Japan; 38.8%); Engelhard West, Inc.; Engelhard Canada, Ltd.; Engelhard Industries International, Ltd. (Canada); Engelhard Technologies, Ltd. (Canada); EC Delaware, Inc.; EI Corporation; Engelhard Asia Pacific, Inc.; Engelhard C Cubed Corporation; Engelhard DT, Inc.; Engelhard EM Holding Company; Engelhard Energy Corporation; Engelhard MC, Inc.; Engelhard Metal Plating, Inc.; Engelhard Pollution Control, Inc.; Engelhard Power Marketing, Inc.; Engelhard Sensor Technologies, Inc.; Engelhard Strategic Investments, Inc.; Engelhard Supply Corporation; Mustang Property Corporation; Engelhard Pigments OY (Finland); Engelhard Pyrocontrole S.A. (France); Engelhard S.A. (France); Engelhard Holdings GmbH (Germany); Engelhard Process Chemicals GmbH (Germany); Engelhard Technologies GmbH (Germany); Engelhard Technologies Verwaltsung GmbH (Germany); Engelhard Italiana S.P.A.; Engelhard Metals Japan, Ltd.; Engelhard DeMeern, B.V. (Netherlands); Engelhard Netherlands, B.V.; Engelhard Terneuzen, B.V. (Netherlands); Harshaw Chemical Company; Mearl Corporation; Engelhard Peru S.A.; Engelhard South Africa, Ltd.; Engelhard Metals A.G. (Switzerland); Dnipro Kaolin (Ukraine); Engelhard International, Ltd. (U.K.); Engelhard Limited (U.K.); Engelhard Metals, Ltd. (U.K.); Engelhard Sales, Ltd. (U.K.); Engelhard Technologies, Ltd. (U.K.); Sheffield Smelting Co., Ltd. (U.K.); Engelhard Export Corporation; Engelhard-CLAL, Ltd. Partnership; Metreon; Engelhard-CLAL SAS (France); NE Chemcat Corporation (Japan); Engelhard/Colortronics; Engelhard/ICC; Heesung-Engelhard Corporation (South Korea); Acreon Catalysts.