BUSINESS AND GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS

Effective with the Merger, Dow’s business activities are components of its parent company’s business operations. Dow’s business activities, including the assessment of performance and allocation of resources, ultimately are reviewed and managed by DowDuPont. Information used by the chief operating decision maker of Dow relates to the Company in its entirety. Accordingly, there are no separate reportable business segments for the Company under ASC Topic 280 “Segment Reporting” and the Company’s business results are reported in this Form 10-K as a single operating segment. See Note 3 for additional information on the Merger.

Beginning in the third quarter of 2018, Dow realigned the following joint ventures, product lines and principal product groups in preparation for the Intended Business Separations:


•	Realignment of the HSC Group joint ventures (DC HSC Holdings LLC and Hemlock Semiconductor L.L.C.) from the Consumer Solutions principal product group to the Electronics & Imaging principal product group.


•	Realignment of certain cellulosics product lines from the Nutrition & Health principal product group to the Consumer Solutions principal product group.


•	Certain roofing products were realigned from the Safety & Construction principal product group to Corporate.


•	Realignment of the previously divested Epoxy and Chlorinated Organics principal product groups to Corporate.


•	The Construction Chemicals principal product group was combined with the Polyurethanes & CAV principal product group.


•	Certain product lines associated with the oil and gas industry were realigned from the Industrial Solutions principal product group to the Polyurethanes & CAV principal product group.

These reporting changes were retrospectively applied to all periods presented.

Principal Product Groups

Dow combines science and technology to develop innovative solutions that are essential to human progress. Dow has one of the strongest and broadest toolkits in the industry, with robust technology, asset integration, scale and competitive capabilities that enable it to address complex global issues. Dow’s market-driven, industry-leading portfolio of advanced materials, industrial intermediates and plastics deliver a broad range of differentiated technology-based products and solutions to customers in 175 countries in high-growth markets such as packaging, infrastructure and consumer care. The Company's products are manufactured at 164 sites in 35 countries across the globe. In 2018, Dow had annual sales of approximately $60 billion. The following is a description of the Company’s principal product groups:

Principal Product Groups Aligned with the Materials Science Business

Coatings & Performance Monomers

Coatings & Performance Monomers makes critical ingredients and additives that help advance the performance of paints and coatings. The product grouping offers innovative and sustainable products to accelerate paint and coatings performance across diverse market segments, including architectural paints and coatings, as well as industrial coatings applications used in maintenance and protective industries, wood, metal packaging, traffic markings, thermal paper and leather. These products enhance coatings by improving hiding and coverage characteristics, enhancing durability against nature and the elements, reducing volatile organic compounds (“VOC”) content, reducing maintenance and improving ease of application. Coatings & Performance Monomers also manufactures critical building blocks based on acrylics needed for the production of coatings, textiles, and home and personal care products.

Consumer Solutions

Consumer Solutions uses innovative, versatile silicone-based technology to provide ingredients and solutions to customers in high performance building, consumer goods, elastomeric applications and the pressure sensitive adhesives industry that help them meet modern consumer preferences in attributes such as texture, feel, scent, durability and consistency; provides a wide array of silicone-based products and solutions that enable Dow’s customers to increase the appeal of their products, extend shelf life, improve performance of products under a wider range of conditions and provide a more sustainable offering; provides standalone silicone materials that are used as intermediates in a wide range of applications including adhesion promoters, coupling agents, crosslinking agents, dispersing agents and surface modifiers; and collaborates closely with global and regional brand owners to deliver innovative solutions for creating new and unrivaled consumer benefits and experiences in cleaning, laundry, skin and hair care applications, among others.

Hydrocarbons & Energy

Hydrocarbons & Energy is the largest global producer of ethylene, an internal feedstock, and a leading producer of propylene and aromatics products that are used to manufacture materials that consumers use every day. It also produces and procures the power and feedstocks used by the Company's manufacturing sites.

Industrial Solutions

Industrial Solutions is the world’s largest producer of purified ethylene oxide. It provides a broad portfolio of solutions that address world needs by enabling and improving the manufacture of consumer and industrial goods and services, including products and innovations that minimize friction and heat in mechanical processes, manage the oil and water interface, deliver ingredients for maximum effectiveness, facilitate dissolvability, enable product identification and provide the foundational building blocks for the development of chemical technologies. Industrial Solutions supports manufacturers associated with a large variety of end-markets, notably better crop protection offerings in agriculture, coatings, detergents and cleaners, solvents for electronics processing, inks and textiles.

Packaging and Specialty Plastics

Packaging and Specialty Plastics serves growing, high-value sectors using world-class technology, broad existing product lines and a rich product pipeline that creates competitive advantages for the entire packaging value chain. Dow is also a leader in polyolefin elastomers and ethylene propylene diene monomer ("EPDM") rubber serving automotive, consumer, wire and cable and construction markets. Market growth is expected to be driven by major shifts in population demographics; improving socioeconomic status in emerging geographies; consumer and brand owner demand for increased functionality; global efforts to reduce food waste; growth in telecommunications networks; global development of electrical transmission and distribution infrastructure; and renewable energy applications.

Polyurethanes & CAV

Polyurethanes & Chlor-Alkali & Vinyl ("CAV") is the world’s largest producer of propylene oxide, propylene glycol and polyether polyols, and a leading producer of aromatic isocyanates and fully formulated polyurethane systems for rigid, semi-rigid and flexible foams, and coatings, adhesives, sealants, elastomers and composites that serve energy efficiency, consumer comfort, industrial and enhanced mobility market sectors. Polyurethanes & CAV provides cost advantaged chlorine and caustic soda supply and markets caustic soda, a valuable co-product of the chlor-alkali manufacturing process, and ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride monomer. The product grouping also provides cellulose ethers, redispersible latex powders, silicones and acrylic emulsions used as key building blocks for differentiated building and construction materials across many market segments and applications ranging from roofing and flooring to gypsum-, cement-, concrete- or dispersion-based building materials.

Corporate

Corporate includes certain enterprise and governance activities (including insurance operations, environmental operations, etc.); non-business aligned joint ventures; gains and losses on sales of financial assets; non-business aligned litigation expenses; discontinued or non-aligned businesses; and foreign exchange gains (losses).

Principal Product Groups Aligned with the Agriculture Business

Crop Protection

Crop Protection serves the global production agriculture industry with crop protection products for field crops such as wheat, corn, soybean and rice, and specialty crops such as trees, fruits and vegetables. Principal crop protection products are weed control, disease control and insect control offerings for foliar or soil application or as a seed treatment.

Seed

Seed provides seed/plant biotechnology products and technologies to improve the productivity and profitability of its customers. Seed develops, produces and markets canola, cereals, corn, cotton, rice, soybean and sunflower seeds.

Principal Product Groups Aligned with the Specialty Products Business

Electronics & Imaging

Electronics & Imaging is a leading global supplier of differentiated materials and systems for a broad range of consumer electronics including mobile devices, television monitors, personal computers and electronics used in a variety of industries. Dow offers a broad portfolio of semiconductor and advanced packaging materials including chemical mechanical planarization ("CMP") pads and slurries, photoresists and advanced coatings for lithography, metallization solutions for back-end-of-line advanced chip packaging, and silicones for light emitting diode ("LED") packaging and semiconductor applications. This product line also includes innovative metallization processes for metal finishing, decorative and industrial applications and cutting-edge materials for the manufacturing of rigid and flexible displays for liquid crystal displays and quantum dot applications.

Industrial Biosciences

Industrial Biosciences is an innovator that works with customers to improve the performance, productivity and sustainability of their products and processes through advanced microbial control technologies such as advanced diagnostics and biosensors, ozone delivery technology and biological microbial control.

Nutrition & Health

Nutrition & Health uses cellulosics and other technologies to improve the functionality and delivery of food and the safety and performance of pharmaceutical products.

Safety & Construction

Safety & Construction unites market-driven science with the strength of highly regarded brands such as STYROFOAM™ brand insulation products, GREAT STUFF™ insulating foam sealants and adhesives, and DOW FILMTEC™ reverse osmosis and nanofiltration elements to deliver products to a broad array of markets including industrial, building and construction, consumer and water processing. Safety & Construction is a leader in the construction space, delivering insulation, air sealing and weatherization systems to improve energy efficiency, reduce energy costs and provide more sustainable buildings. Safety & Construction is also a leading provider of purification and separation technologies including reverse osmosis membranes and ion exchange resins to help customers with a broad array of separation and purification needs such as reusing waste water streams and making more potable drinking water.

Transportation & Advanced Polymers

Transportation & Advanced Polymers provides high-performance adhesives, lubricants and fluids to engineers and designers in the transportation, electronics and consumer end-markets. Key products include MOLYKOTE® lubricants, DOW CORNING® silicone solutions for healthcare, MULTIBASE™ TPSiV™ silicones for thermoplastics and BETASEAL™, BETAMATE™ and BETAFORCE™ structural and elastic adhesives.

The following table provides sales to external customers by principal product group:



Sales to External Customers by Principal Product Group
In millions	2018		2017		2016
Coatings & Performance Monomers	$	3,987	$	3,761	$	3,362
Consumer Solutions	5,660		5,067		3,077
Crop Protection	4,666		4,553		4,628
Electronics & Imaging	2,630		2,615		2,307
Hydrocarbons & Energy	7,401		6,831		5,088
Industrial Biosciences	500		484		419
Industrial Solutions	4,736		4,083		3,675
Nutrition & Health	598		563		529
Packaging and Specialty Plastics	15,239		14,110		13,316
Polyurethanes & CAV	10,368		8,548		7,143
Safety & Construction	1,983		1,932		1,877
Seed	1,003		1,393		1,545
Transportation & Advanced Polymers	1,202		1,167		897
Corporate	285		383		281
Other	20		18		14
Total	$	60,278	$	55,508	$	48,158

Sales are attributed to geographic regions based on customer location; long-lived assets are attributed to geographic regions based on asset location. The United States is home to 52 of the Company's 164 manufacturing sites, representing 67 percent of the Company’s long-lived assets value.



Geographic Region Information	United States		EMEA ¹		Rest of World		Total
In millions	United States		EMEA ¹		Rest of World		Total
2018
Sales to external customers	$	20,008	$	18,148	$	22,122	$	60,278
Long-lived assets	$	15,782	$	2,921	$	4,959	$	23,662
2017
Sales to external customers	$	19,166	$	16,393	$	19,949	$	55,508
Long-lived assets	$	15,715	$	2,999	$	5,098	$	23,812
2016
Sales to external customers	$	16,681	$	13,633	$	17,844	$	48,158
Long-lived assets	$	14,812	$	2,708	$	5,966	$	23,486


1.	Europe, Middle East and Africa.