Dow Announces Start-Up of World-Scale Ethylene Production Facility and ELITE™ Polyethylene Unit in Texas
September 21 2017 - 8:30AM
Business Wire
- Startup of world-scale ethylene
facility captures first-mover advantage, serves as cornerstone for
industry’s most integrated and differentiated derivatives
slate
- ELITE™ polyethylene unit features
proprietary Solution Process technology with unmatched catalyst and
co-monomer capability to meet growing demand for flexible
packaging
DowDuPont Materials Science, the business division of DowDuPont
(NYSE: DWDP) to be named Dow, announced the startup of its new
integrated world-scale ethylene production facility and its new
ELITE™ enhanced polyethylene production facility, both in Freeport,
Texas. These two key milestones enable Dow to capture benefits from
increasing supplies of U.S. shale gas to deliver differentiated
downstream solutions in its core market verticals.
Both units will continue to ramp up through the third quarter
and are expected to reach full rates in the fourth quarter of
2017.
“This is a monumental moment for Dow as we advance our global
growth strategy by fully deploying our unmatched molecular and
physical integration,” said Andrew Liveris, executive chairman of
DowDuPont, and chairman and CEO of Dow. “These facilities are an
integral part of Dow’s investments on the U.S. Gulf Coast to meet
increasing consumer-led demand in our core market verticals of
packaging, infrastructure and consumer care, and will enable our
next level of earnings and cash flow growth.”
A central component of Dow’s U.S. Gulf Coast investments, the
ethylene production facility has an initial nameplate capacity of
1.5 million metric tons. As part of Dow’s next wave of growth
investments, the unit will be expanded to 2 million metric tons,
making it the world’s largest ethylene facility. Measured by total
investment per metric ton of capacity, this new ethylene unit
represents the least capital-intensive ethylene investment in the
region.
The 400,000 metric ton ELITE™ polyethylene production unit is
the first of four new derivative units at Dow’s manufacturing sites
in Texas and Louisiana. Dow’s ELITE™ enhanced polyethylene resins
are known for their versatility and high performance attributes and
are used in multiple types of flexible food and industrial
packaging applications.
“As we ramp these units to full production, we continue to
solidify our early-mover advantage while significantly increasing
our integration and growing our U.S. production capacity,” said Jim
Fitterling, chief operating officer for DowDuPont Materials
Science. “Dow’s new ethylene facility provides a solid,
capital-efficient base in this attractive, feedstock-advantaged
region, which will continue to fuel the industry’s broadest and
most differentiated derivatives slate.”
In addition to supporting Dow’s near-term capacity additions,
the ethylene facility will also support further planned
debottlenecks to unlock additional polyethylene capacity as well as
a new world-scale polyethylene unit as part of the Company’s
comprehensive growth investments. The remaining derivative assets
to come online in the U.S. Gulf Coast include:
- New specialty low density polyethylene
(capacity: 350 KTA) for industrial and supply chain packaging
applications, expected to startup later this year;
- Next generation NORDEL™ metallocene
EPDM (capacity: 200 KTA) to deliver solutions for higher-margin
applications for infrastructure and consumer durables end-markets,
expected to startup in early 2018;
- Bi-modal gas phase de-bottleneck (125
KTA) to enable more offerings for high-performance pipe and fitting
applications, as well as the cap and closure market, to follow
later in 2018;
- High Melt Index Specialty and
Conventional Polyolefin Elastomers (capacity: 320 KTA) for
high-performance flexible packaging end-markets, expected to come
online in late 2018;
- World-scale polyethylene unit based on
Dow’s proprietary Solution Process technology (capacity: 600 KTA)
to meet demand in food and specialty packaging, expected to come
online by 2022.
About DowDuPont Materials Science Division
DowDuPont Materials Science, a business division of DowDuPont
(NYSE: DWDP), combines science and technology knowledge to develop
premier materials science solutions that are essential to human
progress. The division has one of the strongest and broadest
toolkits in the industry, with robust technology, asset
integration, scale and competitive capabilities that enable it to
address complex global issues. DowDuPont Materials Science’s
market-driven, industry-leading portfolio of advanced materials,
industrial intermediates, and plastics businesses deliver a broad
range of differentiated technology-based products and solutions for
customers in high-growth markets such as packaging, infrastructure,
and consumer care. DowDuPont intends to separate the Materials
Science division into an independent, publicly traded company. More
information can be found at www.dow-dupont.com.
Note: The forward looking statements contained in this document
involve risks and uncertainties that may affect Dow’s operations,
markets, products, services, prices and other factors as discussed
in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).
These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to,
economic, competitive, legal, governmental and technological
factors. Accordingly, there is no assurance that Dow’s expectations
will be realized. The Company assumes no obligation to provide
revisions to any forward-looking statements should circumstances
change, except as otherwise required by securities and other
applicable laws.
®TM Trademark of The Dow Chemical Company (“Dow”) or an
affiliated company of Dow
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Jarrod ErpeldingMedia RelationsThe Dow Chemical
Company989.633.1863jarrod.erpelding@dow.com
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