Dow Chemical expands worldwide
The Dow Chemical Company has announced a number of worldwide expansion
plans. The company recently announced
that it will open an office in Chengdu,
China in the first half of 2012. Serving as
Dow’s business and sales hub in Western
China, the new office will help the company
further explore growth opportunities in the
emerging economies of the region.
“The Western China region is a new
strategic area for Dow to accelerate our
business growth in China,” said Peter
Sykes, president of Dow Greater China.
“We expect to continue expanding at a
double-digit annual rate over the next five
to ten years, and we foresee significant op-
portunities in Western China thanks to
major government infrastructure invest-
ments and the size of this region.”
Today, Dow operates 18 manufactur-
ing sites and six business centers across
the Greater China region, mainly in the
Eastern and Southeastern coastal areas
and Taiwan. In 2010, Dow recorded total
sales of more than $4 billion in Greater
China, which is Dow’s second largest in-
ternational market.
Dow also announced plans to expand
its operations in Africa by opening offices
in Algeria and Ghana. The company reported that the decision to open the new
offices and employ more sales staff in
Africa follows a dedicated study to identify opportunities and to finalize an operating structure that will deliver maximum
effect and return for the company in
Africa. This is directly in support of the
Dow business strategy to multiply sales in
the medium term.
The new sales offices will complement
existing Dow operations in Egypt, Kenya
and South Africa, where the company has
more than 50 years of operating history
and employs more than 240 people. This
expansion supports Dow’s commitment to
growth from emerging geographies, bringing the company closer to its growing customer base in Africa.
“With a population of over 1 billion
people, significant and consistent economic
growth rates over the last 10 years and im-
proved corporate governance and trans-
parency, there has never been a better time
to expand Dow’s focus and participation in
Africa,” said Dow chairman and CEO An-
drew Liveris. “This expansion signifies
Dow’s commitment to investing in the needs
of growing regions to help our customers
address tomorrow’s challenges today.”
Dow recently opened a new office in Rio
de Janeiro, further strengthening its com-
mitment to Brazil. Dow, a worldwide part-
ner of the Olympic Games through 2020,
opened its new office in the city with an
event at Copacabana Palace for customers,
public authorities and guests. The new of-
fice aims to create businesses focused on the
opportunities arising from the sports events
to take place in Rio in the next years. Ad-
ditionally, the company wants to be closer
to the production and distribution chain to
the oil and gas industry, one of Rio de
Janeiro’s high growth sectors.
Evonik to construct isophorone
and isophorone diamine
production plants in China
Evonik Industries will build world-scale
plants for producing isophorone and
isophorone diamine. It is investing more
than €100 million in the plants, which are
scheduled to go onstream in the first quarter of 2014. Construction work on the
multi-user site China (MUSC), Evonik’s
production site in Shanghai, will begin in
early 2012. Isophorone is used in applications like paints and printing inks, while
its derivative, isophorone diamine, is used
as a hardener in epoxy-based formulations, e.g. for composite materials, such as
those used in wind turbines.
Evonik expects to see strong growth in
demand for raw materials used in the paint,
coating and construction industries, for automotive applications and for high performance composite materials especially in Asia.
This growth will also be driven particularly
by the increasing demand for wind turbines.
For the specialty chemicals company,
which claims to be the world leader in
isophorone chemistry, the plants in Shang-
hai will be the first for isophorone and
isophorone diamine in Asia. “By estab-
lishing the production platform in China
we want to support the long-term growth
ambitions of our customers in the Asia re-
gion,” said Ulrich Küsthardt, head of the
coatings and additives business unit. “This
strategic positioning will allow us to plan
capacities even more efficiently.”
Evonik currently manufactures
isophorone chemistry products in Mobile,
Ala., United States, as well as in Marl and
Herne, Germany.
Ashland opens technical center
in Mumbai
Ashland Inc. celebrated the opening of its
new technical center in Mumbai, India.
The new Ashland Technical Center will
develop additives and ingredients that deliver high-performance characteristics
sought after by coatings and construction
industry professionals.
The technical center offers the latest
technologies for rheological additives, surfactants, foam-control agents, buffers for
water-based paints, additives for cement
dry ad-mix and for construction chemicals.
“We are extremely pleased to open this
high-technology facility in India,” said John
Panichella, president, Ashland Specialty Ingredients, during the opening ceremony.
“We recognize the value and expertise
available in India and look forward to the
opportunities our new technical center will
bring to this growing region of the world.”
Ashland expands production of
Natrosol globally
Ashland Inc. is expanding production of
Natrosol hydroxyethylcellulose (HEC) by
7,000 metric tons across its global network
through capacity additions at its facilities in
Nanjing, China, and Zwijndrecht, the
Netherlands. In addition, Ashland is increasing production of its Natrosol Plus hy-
