Adequate quantities of coal tar are usually available to produce sufficient natural phenol to meet a substantial part of our requirements, if it were all recovered, but the quantity actually produced is determined in part by the demand for other coal-tar products, and in part by the value of the tar as fuel. More than 50 percent of the tar produced has been burned as fuel, principally at the coke ovens or nearby steel mills. The domestic production and sales of phenol, natural and synthetic combined, are shown in table 59. TABLE 59.—_Phenol: United States production and sales, in specified years, 1918-37_ -----------+----------+--------------------------------+--------------- |Production| Sales | | | | Ratio of sales Census year+----------+----------+----------+----------+ to total | Quantity | Quantity | Value |Unit value| production -----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--------------- | _1,000 | _1,000 | _1,000 | | _Percent_ | pounds_ | pounds_ | dollars_ | | 1918 | 106,794 | 106,794 | 37,270 | $0.35 | 1919 | 1,544 | 1,544 | 156 | .10 | 1923 | 3,311 | 2,180 | 590 | .27 | 66 1925 | 14,734 | 8,524 | 1,771 | .21 | 58 1926 | 8,691 | 5,480 | 988 | .18 | 63 1927 | 8,041 | 4,595 | 684 | .15 | 57 1928 | 10,227 | 7,746 | 912 | .12 | 76 1929 | 24,178 | 19,939 | 2,248 | .11 | 83 1930 | 21,147 | 17,715 | 1,976 | .11 | 84 1931 | 17,981 | 14,002 | 1,446 | .10 | 78 1932 | 13,965 | 12,181 | 1,269 | .10 | 87 1933 | 33,220 | 27,923 | 2,881 | .10 | 84 1934 | 44,935 | 36,241 | 3,887 | .11 | 81 1935 | 43,419 | 34,575 | 3,431 | .10 | 80 1936 | 48,724 | 40,942 | 4,235 | .10 | 84 1937 | 65,690 | 57,176 | 6,153 | .11 | 87 -----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+--------------- Source: Compiled from annual reports of the Tariff Commission on dyes and other synthetic organic chemicals in the United States. _Grades produced for resins._—Increased production of phenol in recent years is largely due to the demand from makers of synthetic resins. A number of grades are regularly produced for this purpose, though it is believed that the technical grade is the principal one used in resins. The several grades are as follows: (1) USP.—Either natural or synthetic. This grade contains not less than 98 percent phenol.