Dow Chemical (Midland, MI) and Aksa Akrilik Kimya Sanayii (Istanbul) plan to set up a joint venture to manufacture and market on a global scale carbon fiber and composites based on them. Target markets include transportation, wind energy, and buildings.

"By partnering together, Aksa and Dow will create the carbon fiber composites industry's only large scale, full-service, fully integrated solution provider serving the growing needs of the world's leading industries," stated Heinz Haller, Dow's Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. "Current megatrends underpin increasing demand for alternative energy resources as well as safer, more efficient vehicles. Therefore, innovative technologies that deliver strong, light-weight materials are in great demand. This partnership combines the individual strengths of each company to provide the market with better solutions while also helping solve some of the world's most pressing challenges."

"Today, the fiber composite market is experiencing tremendous growth on a global scale and, customers are not only demanding products that perform better, they need suppliers that combine reliability, technical expertise and affordability," said Mustafa Yilmaz, Aksa Board Member. "As the world's largest producer of acrylic fibers and a carbon fiber producer since 2008, Aksa is very excited about the opportunity to partner with Dow to explore large, downstream opportunities, and expand our carbon fiber-based product offering world-wide. By combining our technical and market knowledge and our significant positions in industry, we will accelerate the development and commercialization of these new products and at the same time raise the industry standard for performance."-[email protected]