The Dow Chemical Co. recently completed construction of a new facility for the manufacture of propylene oxide-based glycol ethers at Zhangjiagang in Jiangsu Province of the People’s Republic of China. Trial manufacturing runs were successful, and the plant has begun producing commercial-grade products. The facility has an annual nameplate capacity of 120,000 metric tons and will manufacture P-Series glycol ethers such as DOWANOL^TM PM Glycol Ether, which will be used by Asia’s growing electronics industry, as well as in the formulation of paints and coatings, cleaning products, and other applications.

“We’re bringing this capacity to the market today with an eye toward the future,” said Heinz Haller, executive vice president of Dow’s Performance Products Portfolio. “This is an investment in the growth of our customers’ business. We know that today’s economic conditions and reduced demand were an extraordinary occurrence, and we are taking steps to ensure that our customers will have the resources they need to meet their growth in demand for years to come.”

Zhangjiagang, an established and strategic site for Dow, is located on the Yangtze River, approximately 200 kilometers (125 miles) upstream from Shanghai. Ideally situated to service both the domestic and export markets, this new glycol ethers plant joins three other world-scale Dow facilities in Zhangjiagang, including a converted epoxy resin plant and a styrene butadiene latex facility, as well as a joint venture polystyrene resin plant. An additional glycol ether plant devoted to Buyle CELLOSOLVE^TM Solvents is in Malaysia.

For more information, visit www.dowsolvents.com.