An agreement for the construction by an American firm of a $5,000,000 plant for the manufacture of polyethylene in Haifa was signed today. The signers were Pinhas Sapir, Israel Minister for Commerce and Industry, and Virgil Stark, president of the North American Services Construction Company.
Mr. Stark at the same time signed an agreement with the Haifa oil refineries to supply the new plant with ethylene. A $4,000,000 plant to produce ethylene will be built by the Haifa refineries.
The Government will lend the company half of the cost of the polyethylene plant which is expected to become the nucleus of a $50,000,000 petro-chemical industry. The two plant operation for the production of polyethylene, now made in only ten countries, is expected to begin in 1965. Polyethylene is widely used in food packaging and in container production.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
