United States. Dow Chemical announced plans to divest a significant portion of the company's chlorine value chain. The assets represent up to $5 billion of total annual revenue, and include approximately 40 manufacturing facilities at 11 sites and nearly 2,000 employees.
"These companies have worked well for decades, but they serve markets where Dow has emerged over time, and so we're correctly adjusting our upward integration to match the top-down approach we started a decade ago," said Andrew N. Liveris, Dow's chairman and chief executive officer.
The company also announced that it will close approximately 800,000 tons of chlorine and caustic, equivalent to the capacity of its facilities in Freeport, Texas. The capacity will be replaced with supplies from the new facility that will come in line with the start-up of the Dow Mitsui joint venture in early 2014.
