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New Thailand Plant Expands Dow’s Polyol Capacity

| By Scott Jenkins

The Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, Mich.; www.dow.com) today announced the opening of a new world-class polyol plant for rigid polyurethane foam in Rayong, Thailand. The facility increases the company’s capacity to offer high-quality insulation materials and solutions with reliable, energy-efficient performance that customers and the society can benefit from.

“This announcement demonstrates Dow’s commitment to our ongoing investment in polyurethanes in order to bring to our customers a reliable supply of innovative solutions aligned to global trends such as population growth and energy efficiency,” said Jane Palmieri, business president, Dow Polyurethanes. “The Rayong facility is an important addition to Dow’s global polyurethanes manufacturing network, further enabling us to deliver industry-leading products that help customers minimize their environmental footprint, while creating lasting social, environmental and economic benefits throughout the entire product life cycle.”

From keeping food fresher more efficiently to preventing home energy loss, polyol is a key raw material for rigid polyurethane foam solutions to improve energy efficiency in a wide variety of construction, professional cold chain and appliance applications. Dow’s high-performing polyols enable novel energy efficiency solutions, which help customers to meet stringent, country-specific regulations and embrace global sustainability trends.

“We are living in an era when innovative and effective solutions are needed to address imperative sustainability challenges, including energy consumption and climate change,” said Christina Yu, commercial director Asia Pacific, Dow Polyurethanes. “This is particularly important in Asia Pacific where significant population growth and increasing energy consumption is translating to higher demand for energy efficiency solutions, which Dow is best positioned to deliver as the world’s leading material science company.”

The new polyol plant has a designed annual capacity of 79,000 tons and is located at the Asia Industrial Estate (AIE) site in Rayong province. Home to six Dow manufacturing plants, the AIE site covers 515 hectares and adheres to the most advanced environmental, health and safety standards in its operations and management, utilizing bleeding-edge technologies to minimize its overall environmental footprint.