Dow Chemical Strengthens Position in South America

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) (Midland, Michigan), through its Brazilian subsidiary headquartered in Sao Paulo, is planning to implement investments in Brazil that will upgrade an already existing facility and provide the company with its first biopolymers production site in Santa Vitoria, Minas Gerais, boosting Dow's presence in the region.

At the moment, Dow Brazil is planning the implementation of a major plant upgrade in its Camacari Chemical Complex, in Bahia state, which will require an investment of about $25 million. This major project, which is expected to start in July 2012, aims at improving the site's production efficiency when completed in July 2013. This site, with a production capacity of 60,000 metric tons per year of toluene diisocyanate (TDI), positions Dow as the biggest TDI producer in Latin America. This undertaking will help the company supply its Latin America TDI market demands. The Camacari plant also will undergo a major maintenance turnaround when the upgrade is complete, so as to perform the necessary tie-ins.

Dow, in a joint venture with Mitsui Brasilera (Sao Paulo), is at the moment performing the company's most important projects in the region. These two companies are constructing a plant in Santa Vitoria, Minas Gerais, that will produce polyethylene derived from bio-ethanol, which itself will have originated from sugarcane, and will be one of the world's largest integrated plants to manufacture bioplastics. At present, this undertaking is being prioritized, which has meant the cancellation or delay of other investment projects Dow had outlined for the region. In Latin America, Dow operates facilities in Argentina, Mexico, Colombia and Chile.

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