Rubber for Italy

Enrico Mattei, handsome boss of Italy's big Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi state oil and gas monopoly (TIME, Nov. 29), flew across the Atlantic last week to make a deal that will give his country its first doorway into the synthetic-rubber industry. In Manhattan, Mattei signed contracts with Phillips Petroleum Co. and Union Carbide & Carbon Corp. for their processes and help in building a $75 million synthetic-rubber plant at Ravenna, in the Po Valley. It will turn out 35,000 tons of GR-S rubber and 350,000 tons of nitrogen fertilizer annually from nearby methane deposits. The plant will be not only the first synthetic-rubber factory in Italy but the first in Europe to make rubber from natural gas.

The plant, to be built and run by E.N.I.'s subsidiary, A.N.I.C. (Azienda Nazionale Idrogenazione Combustibili), will enable Italy to make better use of its methane, now used as fuel for northern Italian industries. As fuel, the gas would save Italy some $7,000,000 annually in imports. By using the same amount of gas to produce fertilizer and rubber, Italy can make enough money to balance out $40 million worth of imports. Eventually, as rubber production climbs, Italy even hopes to sell enough to supply a large portion of Europe's synthetic-rubber needs. Furthermore, E.N.I.'s Mattei hopes to soften charges that his state company is throttling private investment; its subsidiary, A.N.I.C., which has 25,000 stockholders (but is 51% owned by E.N.I.), will finance the $75 million project from private sources, use no state funds.

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