Dow Bringing New PE Production in Texas Online
Dow Inc. is starting up a new polyethylene resin production unit in Freeport, Texas.
In an email to Plastics News, a spokesperson with Dow in Midland, Mich., said the firm's Poly-7 PE project "is coming online."
According to an Argus Media report, the new unit will have annual swing production capacity of about 1.3 billion pounds of high density or linear low density PE. The report added that the new unit's production will include some LLDPE octene resin. Much of the new line's production is expected to be sold into export markets.
It's the first new capacity for the North American PE market since early 2024, when Nova Chemicals opened a unit with 935 million pounds of LLDPE capacity in Ontario, according to Argus.
The next new PE unit on the horizon is a 4.4 billion pound capacity HDPE unit set to open in Orange, Texas, in 2026, according to Argus. That unit is being built by Golden Triangle Polymers Co. LLC, a joint venture between Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. and Qatar-based QatarEnergy.
The Freeport PE startup continues a busy year for Dow. In early June, the firm said it was selling its 50 percent stake in DowAksa Advanced Composites Holdings BV to joint venture partner Aksa Akrilik Kimya Sanayii AS for $125 million.
In April, Dow said it was delaying construction of a major petrochemicals project in Canada and expanding its review of its European assets, primarily in polyurethanes. And in January, Dow announced plans to cut 1,500 jobs worldwide as part of a $1 billion cost reduction plan.
Dow is one of the world's largest producers of PE and specialty resins. The firm posted sales of just under $43 billion in full-year 2024 and employs approximately 36,000 globally.