Dow to Construct New Ethylene Production Facility for High Melt Index Specialty Elastomers & more

MIDLAND, Mich. -- The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) will begin construction of its previously announced world-scale ethylene production facility, representing a prominent milestone in delivering on its strategy to invest in its performance-based portfolio of technology-enabled businesses. This significant investment in Dow’s Texas Operations in Freeport remains on track and on-plan for start-up in the first half of 2017, and will employ up to 2,000 workers during construction.

"This world-scale ethylene facility is a foundational element in Dow’s strategy to utilize low-cost and advantaged shale gas feedstocks to enable growth in key value-add market-driven businesses," said Andrew N. Liveris, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Collectively, Dow’s U.S. Gulf Coast investments serve as an integral component of our global growth strategy, where we are leveraging our first-mover advantage to deliver significant shareholder value, enabling the Company to achieve our near-term $10 billion EBITDA goal and beyond."

"When combined with our on-purpose propylene PDH project, which is more than 30 percent complete, this ethylene production facility takes Dow yet another step closer to realizing the full financial benefit of our Gulf Coast investment effort," said Jim Fitterling, Executive Vice President, Feedstocks, Energy and Performance Plastics. "This investment will connect cost-advantaged raw materials to many of the Company’s highest-margin downstream businesses ? including Performance Plastics - businesses that also consistently deliver a high return on invested capital. Once fully operational, our Gulf Coast investments are projected to deliver an estimated $2.5 billion in EBITDA and will serve as a solid base for long-term growth while further strengthening Dow’s market competitiveness."

In total, Dow’s comprehensive U.S. Gulf Coast investments in Texas and Louisiana will employ 5,000 workers during peak construction. The projects announced for the Freeport site represent the majority of those workers, with 4,000 required for construction of multiple feedstocks, derivatives and supporting infrastructure projects.

Dow Texas Operations in Freeport is Dow’s largest integrated manufacturing site worldwide and the largest chemical complex in North America with more than 4,200 employees and 3,800 contractors on site daily.

About Dow

Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines the power of science and technology to passionately innovate what is essential to human progress. The Company is driving innovations that extract value from the intersection of chemical, physical and biological sciences to help address many of the worlds most challenging problems such as the need for clean water, clean energy generation and conservation, and increasing agricultural productivity. Dows integrated, market-driven, industry-leading portfolio of specialty chemical, advanced materials, agrosciences and plastics businesses delivers a broad range of technology-based products and solutions to customers in approximately 180 countries and in high growth sectors such as packaging, electronics, water, coatings and agriculture. In 2013, Dow had annual sales of more than $57 billion and employed approximately 53,000 people worldwide. The Companys more than 6,000 products are manufactured at 201 sites in 36 countries across the globe. References to "Dow" or the "Company" mean The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries unless otherwise expressly noted.