FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          AT
TUESDAY, MAY 20, 1997                              (202) 616-2771
                                               TDD (202) 514-1888

 JUSTICE DEPARTMENT APPROVES PROPOSAL BY RUSSELL-STANLEY CORP. TO
   BE PRIME CONTRACTOR FOR INDUSTRIAL STEEL DRUMS SOLD IN U.S.


     WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Department of Justice today approved
a proposal by Russell-Stanley Corporation that would allow the
company to act as a prime contractor of industrial steel drums to
customers who want to acquire all of their U.S. steel drums from
a single source.

     The Department said that Russell-Stanley's proposal to use
subcontractors to bid for national steel drum business would not
be anticompetitive since the company would not subcontract to its
steel drum competitors.  The Department also said that the
proposal may allow Russell-Stanley to compete more effectively
and efficiently which could have a procompetitive effect.

     Russell-Stanley Corp. manufactures and sells industrial
steel drums from plants in Texas and New Jersey to customers that
use the drums to transport chemical and petroleum products. 
Russell-Stanley asserts that the cost of transporting steel drums
from its manufacturing plants to the customer is sufficiently
high as to limit the geographic area within which it can
efficiently compete.

     Recently certain large customers of steel drums have
indicated a preference for purchasing all of their U.S. steel
drum needs from a single source because they do not want to have
to negotiate price and other terms with multiple suppliers. 
Russell-Stanley claims that its limited number of manufacturing
plants and the high cost of delivering steel drums to customers
places it at a competitive disadvantage with competitors that
have more plants in securing the business of large customers who
desire to procure all their U.S. needs from a single source.

     To overcome that asserted competitive disadvantage, Russell-
Stanley would bid for this type of national account business
after determining which of the potential customers' needs that it
could not itself provide efficiently, and obtaining
subcontractors to do that work.  The subcontractors would not be 
firms with which Russell-Stanley competes in any steel drum
market.  The only price information communicated between Russell-
Stanley and its subcontractors would be the price quoted by the
subcontractor to Russell-Stanley for use in formulating its
national account bid.  The subcontractors would not be informed
by Russell-Stanley of the price terms of its bids to potential
national account customers.

     Joel I. Klein, Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge
of the Department's Antitrust Division, said that it did "not
appear that Russell-Stanley's proposal to use firms with whom it
does not compete as subcontractors in offering national account
services would raise risks to competition."

     Klein also noted that "to the extent that Russell-Stanley's
proposal enables it to more effectively compete for the national
account business of large steel drum customers and/or enables the
latter to achieve significant purchasing efficiencies, it could
have a pro-competitive effect."

     The Department's position was stated in a business review
letter from Klein to counsel for Russell-Stanley.

     Under the Department's Business Review Procedure, an
organization may submit a proposed action to the Antitrust
Division and receive a statement as to whether the Division will
challenge the action under the antitrust laws.

     A file containing the business review request and the
Department's response may be examined in the Legal Procedure Unit
of the Antitrust Division, Suite 215, Liberty Place, 325 7th
Street, N.W., Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.  20004. 
After a 30-day period, the documents supporting the business
review will be added to the file.
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