Chemical Business Newsbase October 6, 2006
Dow Chemical aims to boost the competitiveness of its operations worldwide by closing several plants. Structural costs may be cut by around $160 million a year when the plan is fully implemented. The closures include plants in Porto Marghera in Italy and Sarnia and Fort Saskatchewan in Canada.
These will result in a charge of $550 M-$650 million in the company’s third-quarter 2006 results. The suspension of ethylene shipments via the Cochin pipeline will force Sarnia to close the low density polyethylene plant soon, stop polystyrene production before the end of 2006, and close the latex and polyols plants by the end of 2008.
The company’s chlor-alkali and direct chlorination dichloride plants in Fort Saskatchewan will be closed by the end of Oct 2006, while the toluene diisocyanate plant in Porto Marghera will not be restarted after a planned maintenance shutdown in early Aug 2006.
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