Dow Plans Multiple Materials Production Units on Gulf Coast

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Several new specialty material production units will be build on the U.S. Gulf Coast by Dow Chemical Co., Midland, Mich. Dow also has joined ChevronPhillips and ExxonMobil in announcing its own plans to build new PE capacity somewhere in the Gulf Coast. (The other two firms announced plans for new PE capacity of 2.2 billion and 3 billion lb/yr, respectively by 2017.) Dow has not disclosed the capacity or completion date. All of this planned PE activity is linked to cost-advantaged feedstocks from increasing supplies of shale gas in North America.

 

Dow’s other announced facilities, which are in the Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) phase, will be completed in 2014. They are all materials in Dow’s fastest growing market segments, including: packaging; hygiene and medical; electrical and telecommunications; transportation, sports and leisure; and consumer durables:

 

•Next-generation Nordel metallocene EPDM for transportation, infrastructure, electrical, and telecommunications uses.

 

•High-melt-index (HMI) elastomers for Dow’s Affinity brand of hot-melt adhesives.

 

•Elite enhanced polyethylene (LLDPE and MDPE) for high-performance flexible packaging and hygiene/medical applications.

 

•Specialty LDPE to serve demand growth in packaging and electrical/telecommunications market segments.