Dow to Close Epoxy/DERAKANE Resins Unit in Sarnia, Ontario
Dow Chemical Canada Inc. announced that the global Epoxy Products and intermediates business has decided to close its epoxy production facility in Sarnia, Ontario on August 1, 2004. The facility produces solid epoxy resins and DERAKANE* epoxy vinyl ester resins.
"This decision was made after a very thorough review process," says Patrick Ho, business vice president for Epoxy Products & Intermediates (EP&I) at Dow. "After seeing the need for some consolidation of our production facilities worldwide, we looked at all of our epoxy plants. We took into account our global supply chain, production levels for each plant, access to raw materials and a variety of other factors. Based on that review, we came to the difficult decision that we needed to close the Sarnia epoxy facility."
The Sarnia facility currently supplies customers in North America and Asia Pacific. Due to changing global market dynamics, the facility is under utilized and is currently producing approximately 3500 MT/year (7.7 MM lbs) of D.E.R.* solid epoxy resins and 2,000 MT/year (4.4 MM lbs) of DERAKANE resins according to Ho.
"We are committed to ensuring the reliability of supply for our customers and to making this transition as seamless as possible," said Ho. Dow will consolidate production and supply North American customers from the company's epoxy plants in Freeport, Texas (D.E.R. solid epoxy resin) and Joliet, Illinois (DERAKANE resins). To meet the growing demand in Asia Pacific, Dow announced the start-up in May, 2003 of a new 41,000 MT/year (88MM lbs) converted epoxy resins (CER) production unit at Dow's site in Zhangjiagang, The People's Republic of China.
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