Dow Chemical

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The Dow Chemical Company

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1897
resolution 1st September 2017
Reason for dissolution Merger with DuPont
Seat Midland , United States
management Andrew N. Liveris ( CEO )
Number of employees 56,000
sales $ 48.2 billion
Branch chemistry
Website www.dow.com
As of December 31, 2016

The Dow Chemical Company , or Dow Chemical for short , was an international chemical company based in Midland in the United States and the second largest chemical company in the world (after BASF ) based on sales . In 2017 Dow Chemical merged with competitor DuPont to form DowDuPont Inc.

history

The Dow Chemical Company was founded by Herbert Henry Dow in 1897 to produce chlorides and bromides from brine deposits below Midland, Michigan. The company's first products were bromides and bleach . Dow Chemical began to expand its product range early on. In twenty years, Dow Chemical became one of the largest producers of agricultural chemicals , natural chlorine , phenol and other dyes, and magnesium in the United States.

In the 1930s, Dow Chemical began producing polymers. This soon became one of the company's largest businesses. The first plastic products were ethyl cellulose (1935) and polystyrene (1937).

In 1930, Dow built the first factory to make magnesium from seawater instead of underground brine. This business grew strongly because magnesium became important for the manufacture of lightweight components for combat aircraft during World War II . Because of this, Dow became a "vital" company. During the war, Dow and Corning started their joint venture, Dow Corning , to manufacture silicones for military and later also for civilian purposes. In 1942, Dow opened its first factory in Canada.

In the post-war period, Dow also expanded abroad, with the first factory outside North America opening in Japan in 1952. Based on its own, flourishing plastics production, the company was able to enter the consumer goods business in 1953.

With the purchase of Union Carbide in 2001, the company expanded its product range.

Since around 2005, the company has been striving to shift its focus from the manufacture of basic products to high-quality specialty products. This should lead to greater business value creation and greater independence from economic fluctuations. As part of this realignment, divestments of its own business areas, as well as takeovers of specialty chemicals companies or the acquisition of individual business areas of other groups, have taken place since around 2006 .

In addition, Dow and Corning Inc. have owned the joint venture company Dow Corning since 1943 , a specialist in silicon and silicon chemistry with around 10,000 employees worldwide. This joint venture is to be ended in the course of 2016 and fully integrated into the Dow Group.

On July 16, 2010, Dow announced a ten-year sponsoring partnership with the Olympic Committee , beginning with the XXX. London 2012 Olympic Games . On July 25, 2011, the oil company Saudi Aramco announced that Dow would hold a 35% stake in the founding of the Sadara Chemical Company at the Saudi Arabian oil port of al-Jubail . In the Jubail 2 industrial complex , the world's largest petrochemical production facilities for basic chemicals in plastic chemistry will be built by 2016. The investment volume is around 12 billion US dollars. Completion is expected in 2016. The complex includes the world's largest chlor-alkali electrolysis plants and ammonia production using the Haber-Bosch process from Uhde (plus an investment of 0.38 billion US dollars from Linde ). Typical products are bisisocyanates ( TDI and MDI ) and ethylene and propylene glycol condensates. (Location:) On July 29, 2011, Dow announced that it would sell its entire polypropylene segment to the Brazilian company Braskem . This also includes the German location in Wesseling and parts of the production in Schkopau . World icon

From June 2013 Dow was involved in the world's largest butanol production plant there via Sadara in al-Jubail. The newly founded company SaBuCo produced butanol and isobutanol . In May 2015, Dow sold its global epoxy chemistry and chlorinated solvents business, as well as the US parts of its chlor-alkali business, to Olin Corporation .

On December 9, 2015, DuPont and Dow Chemical announced their intention to merge under the name DowDuPont and then split the joint venture into individual listed companies for agrochemicals (€ 20 billion sales), specialty chemicals (€ 10 billion sales) and for Plastics (50 billion euros in sales). The merger is a pure exchange of shares, one Dow share equals 1,000 and one DuPont share equals 1,282 new shares. Also in December 2015, Dow announced that it would acquire Corning's 50% stake in the Dow Corning joint venture for USD 4.8 billion .

The merger was completed on September 1, 2017.

Locations

Dow has 201 manufacturing facilities and other offices in 35 countries, including 73 in the United States. There are 54 locations in Europe, 40 in Asia and 28 in Latin and South America.

The Group's largest site in the USA is in the Houston / Freeport (Texas) area . Other important US plants are in Texas City , Plaquemine ( Louisiana ), Louisville (Kentucky) , and Midland (Michigan) . In Canada there is also a plant near Fort Saskatchewan .

The largest European plants are located in Terneuzen , Tarragona , Schkopau , Stade and Bomlitz . In 2011, Dow employed around 12,000 people in Europe, with Dow Germany being the Group's largest foreign subsidiary with around 5,000 employees. The German headquarters are in Wiesbaden .

Other large production facilities are located near Aratu in Brazil , Bahía Blanca in Argentina , Map Ta Phut in Thailand and al-Jubail in Saudi Arabia .

Products

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Dow Chemical was the world's largest producer of plastics and synthetic rubber and also the largest producer of the basic chemicals chlorine and caustic soda , propylene oxide , ethylene oxide and methyl cellulose, as well as some acrylates .

As a brand name, Dow is little known in the consumer sector, as the company was mainly a supplier to the consumer goods industry . Various cleaning agents from Dow Chemical and DowDuPont are available in the USA, as are antifreeze agents . The Ziploc sealing strip for plastic bags developed by Dow, which is mostly marked in red, is well known, but the business with this was sold to SC Johnson & Son . In the German-speaking area, building material products are mainly known, Including the most popular light blue Styrofoam - insulation with the Dow logo.

Business structure

Dow has five divisions:

Performance Materials

This area accounts for around 25% of group sales. Most of these products are used in automotive engineering and construction . Epoxy resins , polyurethanes , amines , organochlorine compounds and acrylates make up a large proportion of this . In addition to plastics based on petrochemicals , Dow also works with Cargill Inc. on the production of alternative plastics based on renewable raw materials such as B. Polylactate (PLA) .

Advanced Materials

This product group accounts for around 20% of sales and is closely linked to the Performance Materials division . Because here you will mainly find special materials and preliminary products for water treatment , such as ion exchange resins and membranes , as well as auxiliary materials and materials for the pharmaceutical industry , adhesives, special papers, rubber- based products , paints, varnishes and coating systems for electrical engineering applications.

Agricultural Sciences

The agro-industrial division contributes approx. 10% to the group turnover. It includes the manufacture of insecticides (e.g. Lorsban® ), herbicides (e.g. Milestone® ) and fungicides . Dow is also active in the field of genetically modified crops and seeds . Dow AgroSciences sells seeds under various brand names: Mycogen® ( corn , sunflower , alfalfa and millet ), Atlas® ( soy ) and PhytoGen® ( cotton ).

Performance Plastics

Plastics make up around 24% of sales. They are mainly based on polyethylene and other polyolefins as well as polystyrene . In the end-user sector, these substances are essentially known as packaging material, e.g. B. also the polyethylene terephthalate (PET), from which beverage bottles are made.

Feedstocks and Energy

This business area accounts for 20% of sales, although around 84% of the raw materials are produced and used for internal processing in order to produce the above - mentioned high - quality specialty products. The main product groups are glycols , chlorine and caustic soda , vinyl compounds , ethylene oxide and propylene oxide and polyurethanes . In addition, the procurement, production and distribution of the most important petrochemical raw materials and energy sources take place in this area . These are ethylene , propylene , 1,3-butadiene , benzene and styrene , plus natural gas , hydrogen and electrical energy . Dow also operates its own power plants for self-sufficiency at some large locations.

Dow in German-speaking countries

Dow Chemical has been represented in Germany since 1959. In the 1960s, sales branches were initially established, starting from the then head office in Frankfurt am Main . From the beginning of the 1970s, the company set up its own production sites, mainly in Stade and near Rheinmünster .

Through the takeover of Union Carbide and in the course of German reunification through the acquisition of large parts of the Buna-Werke and Olefinwerke Böhlen (see Dow Olefinverbund ), the number of German employees rose to around 4,000 by 2006.

In July 2007 Dow Chemical announced the acquisition of Wolff Walsrode AG. These had been owned by Bayer AG since 1974 . In the course of the takeover, the company was integrated into the group as the Dow Wolff Cellulosics business unit .

The group currently (2016) employs around 5,000 people in Germany at around ten production sites, the larger of which are in the central German chemical triangle in Bitterfeld , Schkopau , Leuna and Böhlen , as well as in Stade , Bomlitz and Rheinmünster (below Greffern ). There is only a little up the Rhine above Drusenheim , the municipality directly opposite on the other side of the river in Alsace , also a plant in France .

Other smaller locations in Germany are in Ahlen , Wesseling , and Schwalbach am Taunus . With the acquisition of Rohm & Haas Ltd. There are additional locations in Marl , Esslingen am Neckar and Arnsberg with a total of around 500 employees.

Dow does not have any production facilities in Austria , but has a sales office in Vienna .

In Switzerland , the European administrative headquarters and some of the Group's research facilities are located in Horgen near Zurich .

criticism

  • At the time of the Vietnam War , Dow Chemical and Monsanto produced the dioxin-containing defoliant Agent Orange , which was used to damage the health of thousands of Vietnamese and American soldiers. To date, there is an increased incidence of pregnancy defects and malformations among the affected population. A compensation process failed in Vietnam in 2006 because scientific evidence of the connection between the damage to health and Agent Orange could not be produced. The companies refused to accept responsibility on the grounds that the US military's mission was beyond their control.
  • In the 1960s, Dow Chemical manufactured napalm for the US military. This weapon was used in the Vietnam War, among others. As a result, there were protests by American students against Dow's recruitment at universities.
  • Union Carbide, a company that was acquired by Dow Chemical on February 6, 2001, is responsible for the most serious industrial accident in history, the so-called Bhopal disaster on December 3, 1984. As a result of the release of a large amount of methyl isocyanate into the air, around 20,000 people died immediately after the accident, and another 150,000 to 600,000 people suffered severe chronic damage. To this day, Dow Chemical is under criticism for still not having adequately compensated these people. For this the company received the " Public Eye Award ". In addition, the company does not feel responsible for the redevelopment of the factory premises.
  • With reference to the Bhophal accident, there were violent protests against the group by residents in Pune in July 2008 . The construction site of a new global research center in Mumbai was set on fire and badly damaged.
  • Discharging sewage into the Tittabawassee River in Michigan, which flows into the Saginaw River , both rivers are heavily polluted with dioxins. This problem was discovered in November 2006. Increased levels of polychlorinated dibenzodioxins were found in the wastewater from Dow Chemical's production facilities in Midland , which appears to be related. The blood of people who ate fish from the Tittabawassee River more often contained higher than usual levels of dioxins. Between July 2007 and November 2008, Dow Chemical reached a settlement with the responsible US authorities (including the Environmental Protection Agency ) to remove dioxin-contaminated sediments from the affected waters and to set up a foundation for solving these environmental problems in the area concerned.
  • In 2008 Dow Chemical was included in the top 4 of the Toxic 100 Index .
  • In 2010 there was a TV report in the series "Die Story" from Westdeutscher Rundfunk , in which it is claimed that the company continues to import the harmful and forbidden asbestos chrysotile into Europe with a special permit. The cells of chlor-alkali electrolysis systems contain this substance. The company has not yet given a promised statement on this. The federal government confirmed the approved import on the basis of a small request from Alliance 90 / The Greens .
  • In 2017, Dow Chemical was accused of tampering with the risk assessment data for their genetically modified soybean .

Trivia

The electrolysis systems at the Dow plant in Stade are the largest single consumer of electrical energy in Germany after Deutsche Bahn and, with around 15% of total European chlorine production, are the largest manufacturer in the EU. A third of the capacity of the Stade nuclear power plant was available to supply them with electricity . A hard coal-fired power plant with an output of 1,000  megawatts has been planned on the company premises in Stade since July 2014 .

Since 1970, Dow has operated Europe's largest brine mine in Ohrensen, 27 kilometers away, to supply salt solution via pipeline . The largest cavern operated here has a volume of around 5 million m³.

Dow also operates a biological sewage treatment plant at the Verbund site in Stade, with a capacity of around 850,000 population equivalents, which roughly corresponds to the output required by the city of Essen .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Dow Chemical 2016 Form 10-K Report , accessed February 14, 2017.
  2. ^ Dow becomes Worldwide Olympic Partner . The Dow Chemical Company. July 16, 2010. Retrieved July 16, 2010.
  3. ↑ Chemweek's Business Daily , July 25, 2011.
  4. ↑ Linde 2013
  5. ^ Thyssen-Krupp press release, May 5, 2003
  6. ↑ Presentation of the SADARA project ( Memento from April 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Sadara Project 2014 .
  8. ↑ Chemweek's Business Daily , July 29, 2011.
  9. ↑ KunststoffWeb , July 29, 2011.
  10. ↑ SaBuCo to build world's largest butanol plant: 330,000 tpd butanol, 11,000 tpd i-butanol . - SaBuCo ( Memento from May 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ^ DuPont and Dow to combine in Merger of Equals . (PDF) In: Press Release. Dow and DuPont, December 11, 2015, accessed December 11, 2015 .
  12. ↑ DOWDUPONT MERGER SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED , at www.dow.com , accessed September 10, 2017.
  13. ↑ See also share swap at IG-Farben merger December 1925. - Dow share history - DuPont share history .
  14. ^ Manager magazine .
  15. ↑ Annual Report 2014 ( Memento from December 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  16. ↑ Plastics Technology , Jan. 2002: "Cargill Dow PLA plant starts up." ( Memento from February 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ^ Mycogen website . Retrieved July 20, 2017.
  18. ↑ PhytoGen website . Retrieved July 20, 2017.
  19. ^ Dow locations France - Drusenheim ( Memento from November 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  20. ↑ Making Money With Napalm ... How Dow Chemical Is Risking Its Reputation. In: The time . March 15, 1968, Retrieved June 7, 2017 .
  21. ^ A b Felicity Barringer: EPA and Dow in Talks on Dioxin Cleanup at Main Factory . In: The New York Times . July 4, 2007. Retrieved April 17, 2008.
  22. ↑ Felicity Barringer: Michigan: Dioxin Deal . In: The New York Times . July 18, 2007. Retrieved April 17, 2008.
  23. ^ Tony Lascari: Superfund Alternative Site possible on Tittabawassee. In: Midland Daily News. November 10, 2008, accessed July 20, 2017 .
  24. ↑ Answer of the Federal Government to a small question by several members of the Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen parliamentary group on asbestos imports by Dow Chemical (PDF; 92 kB), German Bundestag, May 26, 2010.
  25. ↑ Testbiotech has tips for manipulating the risk assessments of GM soy In: bio-markt.info, December 25, 2016, accessed on December 26, 2016.
  26. ↑ Chlorine Industry Review 2008–2009 . Euro chlorine ( CEFIC ). January 31, 2010. Archived from the original on July 18, 2011. Retrieved July 20, 2010.
  27. ↑ Environmental groups are suing the construction of coal-fired power plants. In: ndr.de. October 22, 2015. Retrieved September 29, 2017 .
  28. ↑ Coal power plant in Stade may be built. In: ndr.de. September 28, 2017. Retrieved September 29, 2017 .