A third line of business is manufacturing industrial diamonds in China, a business that is struggling. The plant was first designed to produce 90 metric tons of chlorine per year, but as demand increased it was eventually doubled in capacity to 180 metric tons. Chlorine is an important chemical for a wide variety of industrial and household applications, including water disinfection, treatment of sewage and industrial effluents, household and industrial bleaches to maintain and improve hygiene standards, an essential intermediate in the production of plastics and polymers like PVC and polyurethanes used to manufacture telecommunication and electronic equipment, and to produce electrical goods, automotive parts, sports equipment and compact disks. While revenue has been growing, profitability has been steadily shrinking until a loss was finally realized during 1998. One can only imagine the demand for chlorine continuing to increase in Asia for many years.
Basic chemicals are also commodities with low profit margins.
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