Dow Polyurethanes Gears Up for Next Phase of Growth
Recent significant investment and new business vice president position Dow to fully support customer growth in the polyurethanes industry
The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW) has made significant strategic moves over the past six months, strengthening its long-term commitment and investments in its Polyurethane business, while enhancing the competitiveness of its already strong asset foundation.
These strategic moves are ultimately designed to catapult the franchise in a continued growth trajectory within the next three to five years. Leading this next critical phase, Dow has appointed a proven business leader with a technology-rich background and experience running integrated businesses. With a new world-scale manufacturing complex in
Mark Bassett, Ph. D. was recently named global vice president for Dow Polyurethanes. As global vice president, Bassett will be responsible for business strategy, profit and loss, as well as innovation and growth. Prior to this role, Bassett was the global vice president for Dow Oxygenated Solvents. He began his career with Dow in 1989 when he joined Union Carbide Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, in the
"Mark has held leadership positions in a variety of Dow businesses and has a stellar track record for maximizing business potential," said Torsten Kraef, president of Dow Thermosets. "I am confident our customers will benefit from Mark's business strategy expertise as we celebrate 75 years of polyurethane innovation and look forward to expand our franchise."
Announced in July 2011, the joint venture between Dow and the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco), known as Sadara Chemical Company, will be the largest integrated chemical complex site ever built in the world at one time with over 3 million metric tons of capacity. The site will bring Dow's technology-differentiated polyurethane solutions to customers in emerging geographies such as
"With Sadara, Dow is investing in market-focused, customer-centric technologies and process optimization," said Mark Bassett, the new global vice president for Dow Polyurethanes. "Sadara allows us to offer our customers advanced technologies, supply capabilities and resources to grow with their customers' demand."
Sadara is just one of the more recent examples of the Company's strategic growth footprint, where Dow has plans to offer a broad portfolio of propylene glycol (PG), polyether polyol and isocyanate products by 2016. Other continued investments in propylene oxide, PG and polyurethanes have resulted in successfully co-operating a hydrogen peroxide to propylene oxide (HPPO) plant in
Dow Polyurethanes is proud to have been a part of the 75 years of polyurethane chemistry history and continues to develop innovative solutions that help keep our customers a step ahead of ever-changing industry requirements. Dow is committed to serving customers as the leading producer of propylene oxide, propylene glycol and polyether polyols with a 60+ year legacy in polyurethane chemistry, backward integration to raw materials, innovation, and process and product stewardship expertise.