Dow sees strong northern Europe demand, has no euro worries - CFO

08 June 2010 17:02  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--Dow Chemical sees continued strong demand in its main markets in northern Europe, especially Germany, and has not been affected by the drop of the euro currency or the debt crisis in southern Europe, the company's chief financial officer said on Tuesday.

Dow was “still seeing strong demand" in northern and eastern Europe, sequentially from the first to the second quarter, despite the plunge of the euro currency and the debts crisis, William Weideman told analysts at a webcast investor conference in New York.

“Our main markets in Europe are Germany and France, and Germany is remaining strong,” he said.

The troubled countries in southern Europe accounted for only about 3-4% of Dow's global sales, he said.

The decline of the euro, which lost about 17% of its value since the end of 2009, had no significant impact on Dow because the company’s assets in Europe were providing a “natural hedge”, Weideman said.

The euro’s impact on Dow’s first-quarter results was “a nickel”, he added.

Overall, Dow saw the global economy showing signs of a meaningful recovery, he said.

"April, May and June, we continued to see improvement in demand...demand is still good", despite the euro, inflation or other market concerns, Weideman said.

North America, as well as northern and eastern Europe – two regions that until recently lagged the recovery in the global economy – were growing, he said.

Emerging economies, led by China, India, southeast Asia and Brazil, showed strong growth, he said.

The overall global economic environment was on a stronger footing, with the highlight being significant demand growth in the developed regions, he added.

In the US, however, the outlook for construction was mixed, Weideman said. Commercial construction remained weak and could deteriorate further. However, residential construction had bottomed and was slowly recovering, he said.

"Other than that, almost every industry that we are touching, we are seeing either good improvement or slow improvement," he said.

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By: Stefan Baumgarten
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