Dow makes moves

Dow Chemical Co. (Midland, MI) will buy out its Pacific Plastics Ltd. joint-venture partners, including Siam Cement Group, taking full ownership of the polyols and polyurethane systems operation located in Map Ta Phut, Thailand. Dow’s relationship with the Siam Cement Group goes back to their first joint-venture agreement in 1987, and since then the pair has created five joint-venture companies, producing polyols, synthetic latex, polystyrene, styrene monomer, and polyethylene at the Map Ta Phut location. The two companies will continue to collaborate on various projects, including the Thai liquids cracker announced in October 2006 that’s expected to begin operations in 2010.

In additional Dow news, the company announced that it has completed the sale of its Ethafoam performance-foam business to packaging supplier Sealed Air Corp. On Sept. 25, 2007, Dow announced plans to sell the business, and as part of the deal with Sealed Air, that company receives global rights to portions of the Ethafoam polyethylene (PE) foam product lines, including a license to process technology, customer contracts, trademarks, and specific production and process equipment. Also as part of the arrangement, Dow will supply products to Sealed Air from its manufacturing facilities in Hanging Rock, OH and Drusenheim, France for a period of up to 18 months, after which Sealed Air will begin manufacturing the products at its own facilities. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.—[email protected]