VIDEO: Dow aims to boost emerging market sales to 35% of total

28 January 2011 18:54  [Source: ICIS news]

PARIS (ICIS)--Dow Chemical aims to boost sales from emerging markets by five percentage points to 35% of the global total over the next five years as it pushes hard into these high growth regions, a top company executive said on Friday.

Latin America and Asia are two growth target areas where Dow is investing heavily in specialty and building block products which will help populations there enjoy a higher standard of living, according to Jerome Peribere, president and CEO of Dow Advanced Materials.

Speaking on the sidelines at the launch of the International Year of Chemistry in Paris, Peribere told ICIS: “We have today about 30% of our sales in emerging countries. This will move to 35% five years from now. So we are disproportionally investing in emerging markets and disproportionally investing in our specialty products which are closer to our customers.”

“For this we need to be more decentralised. So we’re putting more manufacturing plants and more labs to provide the products to suit emerging markets as they increase their purchasing power,” he added.

Peribere reinforced Dow’s commitment to retaining its commodity chemicals business. “We’re investing a lot in our building blocks because we do believe that there is an important link between building blocks and downstream businesses. Splitting is not an option for Dow because we believe in the integration of our chemistries.”

Dow is a major sponsor of the International Year of Chemistry and Peribere said the event would be a major opportunity to convince people of the benefits of chemistry: “This is a fantastic opportunity to help the public understand the extraordinary benefits the chemical industry has brought to humanity.”

“Sometimes the public likes chemistry but doesn’t like chemicals. There is a big need for the public to understand that without chemistry we would not have doubled life expectancy during the twentieth century. We would not have been able to feed the population," he added.

For the full interview click here:

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By: Will Beacham
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