EUROPE BECKONS, CARBIDE RESPONDS

After nearly a decade marked by a low-profile marketing presence, Union Carbide has reentered the European scene determined to make waves, not rock in the wake of others. Carbide has reestablished itself in Europe and nearby North Africa and the Middle East with a wholly owned subsidiary—Geneva-based Union Carbide Europe—and three major joint ventures. "The European market remains such a big piece of the action—one-third of the world's chemical activity," says Joseph C. Soviero, vice president of Union Carbide, in Danbury, Conn. "If you have the right equation," particularly with a competitive position in olefins, "it certainly is a market one wants to play in," even if the markets in Europe are now growing slower than those in Asia-Pacific. But the company also knew, he adds, that it did not want to be just another competitor in the marketplace, coming in with large new production capacities—that would have led to price erosion ...