Liveris underscores Dow's commitment to China

19 December 2007 11:07  [Source: ICIS news]

SHANGHAI (ICIS news)--Dow Chemical expects its turnover in China to continue to grow more than 15% a year in the next couple of years, chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris said on Wednesday in Shanghai.

With sales revenue reaching $2.7bn in 2006, Greater China is Dow’s third largest market.

“The revenue growth rate of Dow in China stood at 15-20% in the past two years. I would be disappointed if the rate will not go up in 2007 and 2008,” said Liveris in response to a question at a media session.

Liveris outlined Dow’s strong commitment to China.

“Dow has so far invested more than $500m in Greater China and the amount will probably double with the launch of the Dow Centre in Shanghai next year,” he said.

The new Dow Centre is being built in Zhangjiang High-Tech Park in Shanghai and will be completed in 2008. It will comprise of a state-of-the-art research and development facility and a global information technology hub.

The centre will house up to 1,600 employees and will become a major business and innovation centre for Dow in the Asia-Pacific region, said Liveris.

Dowrecently announced a land reservation at Shanghai Chemical Industrial Park (SCIP).

The project envisages construction of a world-scale 150,000 tonne/year glycerine-to-epichlorohydrin (GTE) plant and a 100,000 tonne/year liquid epoxy resins (LER) plant at SCIP, approximately 50 kilometres from Shanghai, for a total investment of $250m.

Liveris added that he expects China to become Dow’s largest market within 20 years.

ICIS Copyright © Reed Business Information 2009

Author: Dolly Wu
+65 6780 4359

< previous article(ICIS Chemical Business podcast November 2, 2009)

For the latest chemical news, data and analysis that directly impacts your business sign up for a free trial to ICIS news - the breaking online news service for the global chemical industry.

Get the facts and analysis behind the headlines from our market leading weekly magazine: sign up to a free trial to ICIS Chemical Business.