The Dow Chemical Company (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) announced its next phase of comprehensive investments over the next five years to further enhance its competitive advantage and deliver earnings growth. These investments will stimulate economic activity, primarily in the United States, while also creating a significant number of jobs tied to state-of-the-art manufacturing and infrastructure investments. The company also continues to accelerate its efforts to train and educate the workforce and close the skills gap for tomorrow’s manufacturing careers.
“Today’s announcement underscores Dow’s commitment to driving the next-phase of our growth through a comprehensive set of investments that will benefit our shareholders, customers, employees and the communities in which we operate,” said Andrew Liveris, Dow’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Manufacturing plays a vital role in driving economic growth and prosperity across virtually all sectors of society. The positive investment environment in the U.S. chemical and materials sector, driven by competitive feedstocks and a skilled workforce, is a driver for Dow to further invest in the USA.”
The projects announced today extend Dow’s U.S. growth investments to more than $12 billion over a 10-year period and are expected to employ approximately 5,500 workers at peak activity, as well as 300 permanent jobs. Investments in the U.S. will support the largest job creation, reaching approximately 3,500 construction jobs and 200 full-time technical, vocational and professional careers. The job creation is also expected to have a multiplier effect, supporting additional employment of nearly 2,000 jobs across the broader economy(1).
The investments announced today are expected to come online in a phased manner, beginning in 2020 and will require estimated capital expenditures of approximately $4 billion, spread over the next five years. The primary components of this plan include:
- Expansion of the capacity of Dow’s new TX-9 ethylene cracker through the addition of two furnaces, bringing the facility’s total ethylene capacity to 2 million metric tons and making the TX-9 cracker the largest ethylene facility in the world.
- Construction of a world-scale 600,000 metric ton polyethylene unit in the U.S. Gulf Coast based on Dow’s proprietary Solution Process technology. This new capacity will address consumer-driven demand in specialty packaging, health and hygiene, and industrial and consumer packaging applications.
- Dow will pursue a series of investments to strengthen its Polyurethanes franchise aimed at driving downstream specialty polyols and systems growth and infrastructure enhancements.
- The Company will undertake a series of incremental debottleneck projects across its global asset network that will deliver approximately 350,000 metric tons of additional polyethylene, the majority of which will be in North America.
- Construction of a new catalyst production unit for key catalysts licensed by Univation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dow, enhancing Univation’s licensing model.
- Construction of a world-scale 450,000 metric ton polyolefins facility in Europe. This capacity addition will maximize the value of Dow’s ethylene integration in the region and serve growing demand for high-performance pressure pipes and fittings, as well as caps and closures applications.
- The Company will pursue additional investments to benefit from shale gas economics, further enhancing feedstock flexibility and reducing volatility from these advantaged inputs.
- Dow will further enhance its Pack Studios, the Company’s global network of packaging experts, equipment and testing capabilities that accelerates the collaborative development of better packaging. Over the next two years, Dow will drive several advancements in the U.S. and globally in polyethylene and adhesive innovations and rapid prototyping, strengthening the Company’s position as the preferred development partner for packaging innovation.
- Dow will invest an additional $400 million to support the transformation of its Midland, Michigan manufacturing operations, enabling further synergies from the integration of Dow and Dow Corning’s manufacturing operations as a result of the recent restructuring of Dow Corning’s ownership.