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Show mele: pa.ie She Salt LakeTribune BUSINESS M@ MOTLEY FOOL, E-2 ME HUMBERTO CRUZ. E-2 Ty SUNDAY M@ CHET CURRIER, E-3 AUGUST 6, 2000 r Hl j i | H i i i i He Steve Griffin/The Salt Lake Tribune -The Huntsman Corp. C4plant in Port Neches, Texas, is one of 70 Huntsmanfacilities aroundthe world. The Port Nechesplant producesethylene and propylene — two raw materials forplastics. Industrial Alchemist Jon Huntsman’s entrepreneurial magic has turned a collection ofcast-off chemical plants into gold Growth Through Acquisition As Huntsman Corp. has grown,so, too, has the pace ofits acquisitions. Since 1993,with its first large acquisition, sales haveincreasedeightfold. Sales in billions BY GUY BOULTON ‘THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE he solemn meeting that took place last month in Jon M. Huntsman’s boardroom wasas important'to the billionaire chairman of Utah’s largest corpora- tion as any other. Many of Huntsinan’s nine children and their spouses and dozens of grandchildren gathered in the massive room, heads bowed as an infant family member received a blessing in the tradition of The Churchof Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Afterward, the brood of mostly blond ct ‘Idren de- scended noisily on HuntsmanCorp.'s cafeteria, skipping and yelling and exploringfreely as if they were at their grandparents’ farm rather than at the staid Salt Lake City headquarters of the world’s largest privately held chemi- cal conglomerate. Huntsman Corp.is a multinational behemoth, with 14,000 employees and 70 manufacturing sites around the world. Last year, those sites produced 32 billion pounds of petrochemicals used in detergent, shaving cream, soap, bicycle helmets, automobile dashboards, paper and paint. The.company’s 1999 sales totaled about$8 billion. Yet aboveall else, Huntsman Corp. is a family-owned business at a turning point inits brief history. Having built a prosperous company in just 17 years, Jon Huntsmanis focusing more on giving money away. And ashedoes, the task of makingit is shifting more to his sonsand sons-in-law. In July, Peter Huntsman becamechief executive of Corp. Jon Huntsman is notfinished building his company. He remains chairman. But runningits day-to-day operations is now his son’s job. Jon Huntsman will spend moretimeon the charitable endeavors for which Time magazine last month ranked him sixth ona list of living U.S. philanthropists. Yet even in that pursuit, he sees a benefit to the family business for which five of his six sons and three ofhis sons-in-law work. Huntsman’s charitable contributions and commitments, which Time estimated at more than $350million, will help ensure that Huntsman Corp. does not become complacent, he says. In the 1980s, when his company was neverfar from failing, Huntsman was driven to succeed bythe need to payoff his loans. Now the pressure comesfromtheneed to fundphilanthropy. “T always knew thatif we committed to give something, we would just have to work harder,” Huntsmansays. “Pressure is always a healthy product for a successful business. And the day you don't have pressureto get up and produce 6 7 8 Hh 8 & H 18 I meansubstantial pressure is the day ‘Tribune file photo See HUNTSMAN,Page E-6 Jon Huntsmanleaves the company planewith two grandchildren. The HuntsmanCorp.is in transition, with sons and sons-in-law taking leadershippositions. you quit growing and developing.” Mike Miller/TheSalt Lake Tribune From the dregsofoil,,petrochemical plants produce the essentials for a modern society Where Huntsman near Major Pantsand Operations BYSTE’ EN OBERBECK ‘THESALT LAKETRIBUNE MT ee Cd JEFFERSON COUNTY, Locked behind chain-link fences straddling the city boundaries of Port Arthur andPort Neches, Huntsman Corp.'s threeplant petrochemicals complex appears to be little more than miles of interwoven pipes, tanks and towers jutting starkly into the sky. Inside those fences, though, molecular matter is smashed and torn tobits, then reassembled into base material that later will be fashioned by Huntsman’s customers into myriad modern-day products. “What Mother Nature does with her molecules and what she lets us dois Carol Triebel, Huntsman’s vice president of chemicals, as she strolls among the massive pipes and tanks. Hugging Texas’ Gulf Coast in an area where alligators sometimes stray onto the grounds from nearby company- maintained wetlands, Huntsman's plants are as much a mystery to most area dents as the Salt Lake City-based compa ny’s products are to most Utahns, Mike Miller/The Salt Lake Tribune 1 Huntsman's environmentalrecord E-5 @ Time line of Huntsman's life E4 Texas of the Port Arthur Chamberof Commerce. Yet few people outside the 1,200 plant workers living in the area can explain the science behind them,shesays. It is little wonder. Huntsman’s products are as far removed from most consumer goods as an acre of farmland is from a loaf of bread. And except for the occasional train of tankercars,the only visible signs ofactivity at the plants often are the billowing clouds of water vapor rising high above metal smokestacks. Mostofthe raw materials the plants use arrive by pipeline. Refined products usually are shipped out the same way, al. though some go bytrain. Although they are hard for the general public to comprehend, Huntsmanproduced chemicals are among the essentials of an industrialsociety. Virtually all the products Huntsman makes are sold as raw materials to fashion detergents, shaving cream, plastic wrap Just about everyone in southern Texas knows about the plastic: id other end products the petrochemicals industry and thousands of other products. They are foundin the soles of athletic shoes and in makes, says Verna Rutherford, president See PETROCHEMICALS,Page E-5 ( ‘ |