On June 30, The Dow Chemical Company (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) will begin construction of its previously announced world-scale ethylene production facility, representing a prominent milestone in delivering on its strategy to invest in its performance-based portfolio of technology-enabled businesses. This significant investment in Dow’s Texas Operations in Freeport remains on track and on-plan for start-up in the first half of 2017, and will employ up to 2,000 workers during construction.
“This world-scale ethylene facility is a foundational element in Dow’s strategy to utilize low-cost and advantaged shale gas feedstocks to enable growth in key value-add market-driven businesses,” said Andrew N. Liveris, chairman and chief executive officer. “Collectively, Dow’s U.S. Gulf Coast investments serve as an integral component of our global growth strategy, where we are leveraging our first-mover advantage to deliver significant shareholder value, enabling the Company to achieve our near-term $10 billion EBITDA goal and beyond.”
With a nameplate capacity of approximately 1,500,000 metric tons per year (m.t./yr), Dow’s new ethylene production facility is part of a multi-billion dollar investment. Alongside previously announced plastics and elastomers facilities, this will support market growth and expansions of Dow’s industry leading-leading Performance Plastics franchise that includes:
- Next-Generation NORDEL metallocene EPDM to serve the consumer durables, automotive and electrical cable markets. (Capacity: 200,000 m.t./yr)
- High-Melt Specialty Index Elastomers used in hot-melt adhesives for high performance flexible packaging, and hygiene and medical markets. (Capacity: 320,000 m.t./yr)
- ELITE Enhanced Polyethylene for high-performance flexible packaging and hygiene and medical markets. (Capacity: 400,000 m.t./yr)
- New specialty low-density polyethylene for protective packaging and power-transmission markets. (Capacity: 350,000 m.t./yr)