Subject: Re: BRK - OXY
I'm not a big fan of the OxyChem purchase, either. As you say, "We've already got enough businesses that just grow with the economy." OxyChem also has two disadvantages compared to the leader in the chloralkali business, Dow Chemical. One is scale, which is a big deal in the commodity chemical business, and the other is Dow's patent on the cation exchange membrane used in the electrochemical production cell. Other chloralkali companies have to buy Naphion membranes from DuPont.