Effective May 18, Dow has declared force majeure due to circumstances beyond its reasonable control at the Texas City, TX, vinyl acetate monomer (VAM) plant, which is owned by Union Carbide Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Dow. The Texas City plant was hit by a storm on May 8, resulting in significant damage to critical equipment. This caused an involuntary and continued shutdown of the VAM plant at the site. While repairs to the equipment have commenced, this event occurred during a period of low inventory levels at Dow and overall tight supply. Dow is projecting a restart of VAM production at the Texas City plant by the end of May 2005.

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