28 March 2017
DETAILS
today announced
the completion of the construction phase
of its new, world-scale ethylene production facility
in Freeport, Texas.
The Company reached this milestone
within one week of the originally planned date,
which was set approximately two years ago.
Dow’s ethylene unit is now progressing
through the commissioning phase,
with start-up expected by mid-year.
At peak activity, the construction phase involved
more than 3,000 Dow employees and contractors.
The project achieved more than
five million consecutive work hours
without a lost-time incident.
Dow’s new unit also represents
one of the least capital-intensive ethylene investments1
currently announced across the U.S. Gulf Coast.
The world-scale production unit
– with a nameplate capacity of 1.5 million metric tons –
is a central component of
Dow’s $6 billion U.S. Gulf Coast investment program,
designed to strengthen the competitiveness
of its downstream, consumer-led businesses.
It will feed Dow’s derivative investments,
which will come on-line
throughout 2017 and 2018 and include:
- Enhanced Polyethylene for high performance
flexible food packaging and
personal hygiene applications (Capacity: 400 KTA); - New specialty low density polyethylene
for industrial and supply chain packaging applications
(Capacity: 350 KTA); - Next Generation NORDEL™ metallocene EPDM
to deliver solutions for higher-margin applications
for the transportation, infrastructure
and consumer durables end-markets
(Capacity: 200 KTA); - High Melt Index Specialty
and Conventional Polyolefin Elastomers
for high-performance flexible packaging,
transportation and consumer markets
(Capacity: 320 KTA); and - Bi-modal gas phase de-bottleneck
to enable more offerings
for high-performance pipe and fitting applications,
as well as the cap and closure market (125 KTA).
Dow’s chairman and CEO
“This tremendous milestone represents
the Dow team’s unwavering ability to deliver on
our commitments to meet the needs of our customers,
generate value for our shareholders
and to create opportunities for our employees,”
“The Freeport ethylene unit is the cornerstone
of our $6 billion investment in the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Our growth investments leverage
* the advantaged shale gas supply available in the U.S.,
* and represent thousands of new jobs
* and significant economic value, including
exports of approximately 20 percent of our U.S. production.”
Dow’s president and chief operating officer
“I’m incredibly proud of our team’s efforts
to complete the complex construction phase
of Dow’s new state-of-the-art ethylene facility.
This unit will further enhance
Dow’s industry-leading integration
and provide the critical building blocks
to bolster our competitive advantage
in targeted consumer-led markets, including
packaging, transportation, infrastructure
and consumer care,”
“Not only does this investment leverage
Dow’s early-mover advantage in shale gas,
but it will also fuel the industry’s broadest
and most differentiated derivatives slate,
featuring Dow’s proprietary catalyst
and process technologies, to meet growing
consumer demand throughout the Americas.”
Doug May,
Business President for Hydrocarbons
“The addition of Dow’s TX-9 cracker
to our Freeport site is a great milestone.
That site now has over 4 million metric tons
of olefins capacity to provide low-cost integration strength
to our targeted high-growth derivatives,”
“This is an important proof point of the Dow team’s ability
to deliver the projected cost and schedule performance
on a project of this size and sets the tone
for how we can execute
the commissioning and start-up
of the ethylene unit over the next few months.”
For further information contact:
Jarrod Erpelding
Corporate Media Relations
The Dow Chemical Company
989.633.1863
jarrod.erpelding@dow.com
WWW.CHEMWINFO.COM BY KHUN PHICHAI
