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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

☑ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from __________to__________



Commission File Number	Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter, Principal Office Address and Telephone Number	State of Incorporation or Organization	I.R.S. Employer Identification No.
001-38646	Dow Inc.	Delaware	30-1128146
	2211 H.H. Dow Way, Midland, MI 48674
	(989) 636-1000
001-03433	The Dow Chemical Company	Delaware	38-1285128
	2211 H.H. Dow Way, Midland, MI 48674
	(989) 636-1000

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:



Registrant	Title of each class	Trading Symbol(s)	Name of each exchange on which registered
Dow Inc.	Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share	DOW	New York Stock Exchange
The Dow Chemical Company	4.625% Notes due October 1, 2044	DOW/44	New York Stock Exchange

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.



Dow Inc.	☑	Yes	☐	No
The Dow Chemical Company	☑	Yes	☐	No

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.



Dow Inc.	☐	Yes	☑	No
The Dow Chemical Company	☐	Yes	☑	No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.



Dow Inc.	☑	Yes	☐	No
The Dow Chemical Company	☑	Yes	☐	No

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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).



Dow Inc.	☑	Yes	☐	No
The Dow Chemical Company	☑	Yes	☐	No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.



Dow Inc.	Large accelerated filer þ	Accelerated filer ¨	Non-accelerated filer ¨	Smaller reporting company ¨	Emerging growth company ¨
The Dow Chemical Company	Large accelerated filer ¨	Accelerated filer ¨	Non-accelerated filer þ	Smaller reporting company ¨	Emerging growth company ¨

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.



Dow Inc.	☐
The Dow Chemical Company	☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).



Dow Inc.	☐	Yes	☑	No
The Dow Chemical Company	☐	Yes	☑	No

As of June 30, 2019, the aggregate market value of the common stock of Dow Inc. held by non-affiliates of Dow Inc. was approximately $36.3 billion based on the last reported closing price of $49.31 per share as reported on the New York Stock Exchange.

Dow Inc. had 741,678,966 shares of common stock, $0.01 par value, outstanding at January 31, 2020. The Dow Chemical Company had 100 shares of common stock, $0.01 par value, outstanding at January 31, 2020, all of which were held by the registrant’s parent, Dow Inc.

The Dow Chemical Company meets the conditions set forth in General Instruction I(1)(a) and (b) for Form 10-K and therefore is filing this form in the reduced disclosure format.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Dow Inc.: Portions of Dow Inc.'s Proxy Statement for the 2020 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated herein by reference in Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K to the extent stated herein. Such proxy statement will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days of Dow Inc.'s fiscal year ended December 31, 2019.

The Dow Chemical Company: None.

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Dow Inc. and Subsidiaries

The Dow Chemical Company and Subsidiaries

ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019

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PART I		PAGE
Item 1.	Business.	6
Item 1A.	Risk Factors.	17
Item 1B.	Unresolved Staff Comments.	20
Item 2.	Properties.	20
Item 3.	Legal Proceedings.	21
Item 4.	Mine Safety Disclosures.	22

PART II
Item 5.	Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities.	23
Item 6.	Selected Financial Data.	24
Item 7.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.	25
Item 7A.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk.	57
Item 8.	Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.	58
	Dow Inc. and Subsidiaries:
	Consolidated Statements of Income.	64
	Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income.	65
	Consolidated Balance Sheets.	66
	Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows.	67
	Consolidated Statements of Equity.	68
	The Dow Chemical Company and Subsidiaries:
	Consolidated Statements of Income.	69
	Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income.	70
	Consolidated Balance Sheets.	71
	Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows.	72
	Consolidated Statements of Equity.	73
Item 9.	Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure.	148
Item 9A.	Controls and Procedures.	149
Item 9B.	Other Information.	152

PART III
Item 10.	Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance.	153
Item 11.	Executive Compensation.	153
Item 12.	Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters.	153
Item 13.	Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence.	153
Item 14.	Principal Accounting Fees and Services.	153

PART IV
Item 15.	Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules.	155
Item 16.	Form 10-K Summary.	158

SIGNATURES		160

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	Dow Inc. and Subsidiaries The Dow Chemical Company and Subsidiaries

This Annual Report on Form 10-K is a combined report being filed by Dow Inc. and The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries (“TDCC” and together with Dow Inc., “Dow” or the "Company"). This Annual Report on Form 10-K reflects the results of Dow and its consolidated subsidiaries, after giving effect to the distribution to DowDuPont Inc. (“DowDuPont” and effective June 3, 2019, n/k/a DuPont de Nemours, Inc. or "DuPont") of TDCC’s agricultural sciences business (“AgCo”) and specialty products business (“SpecCo”) and the receipt of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company and its consolidated subsidiaries' (“Historical DuPont”) ethylene and ethylene copolymers business (other than its ethylene acrylic elastomers business) ("ECP"). The U.S. GAAP consolidated financial results of Dow Inc. and TDCC reflect the distribution of AgCo and SpecCo as discontinued operations for the applicable periods presented as well as the receipt of ECP as a common control transaction from the closing of the merger with Historical DuPont on August 31, 2017. In addition, following the separation from DowDuPont, the Company changed the manner in which its business activities were managed. The Company's portfolio now includes six global businesses which are organized into the following operating segments: Packaging & Specialty Plastics, Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure and Performance Materials & Coatings. Corporate contains the reconciliation between the totals for the operating segments and the Company's totals. As a result of the parent/subsidiary relationship between Dow Inc. and TDCC, and the expectation that the financial statements and disclosures of each company will be substantially similar, the companies are filing a combined report for this Annual Report on Form 10-K. The information reflected in this report is equally applicable to both Dow Inc. and TDCC, except where otherwise noted. Each of Dow Inc. and TDCC is filing information in this report on its own behalf and neither company makes any representation to the information relating to the other company.

Background

On April 1, 2019, DowDuPont completed the separation of its materials science business and Dow Inc. became the direct parent company of TDCC and its consolidated subsidiaries, owning all of the outstanding common shares of TDCC. For filings relating to the period commencing April 1, 2019 and thereafter, TDCC was deemed the predecessor to Dow Inc., and the historical results of TDCC are deemed the historical results of Dow Inc. for periods prior to and including March 31, 2019.

The separation was contemplated by the merger of equals transaction effective August 31, 2017, under the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of December 11, 2015, as amended on March 31, 2017. TDCC and Historical DuPont each merged with subsidiaries of DowDuPont and, as a result, TDCC and Historical DuPont became subsidiaries of DowDuPont (the “Merger”). Subsequent to the Merger, TDCC and Historical DuPont engaged in a series of internal reorganization and realignment steps to realign their businesses into three subgroups: agriculture, materials science and specialty products. Dow Inc. was formed as a wholly owned subsidiary of DowDuPont to serve as the holding company for the materials science business.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This report contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. In this context, forward-looking statements often address expected future business and financial performance, financial condition, and other matters, and often contain words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “may,” “opportunity,” “outlook,” “plan,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “strategy,” "target," “will,” “will be,” “will continue,” “will likely result,” “would” and similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. Forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties which may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements.

Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, expectations as to future sales of Dow’s products; the ability to protect Dow’s intellectual property in the United States and abroad; estimates regarding Dow’s capital requirements and need for and availability of financing; estimates of Dow’s expenses, future revenues and profitability; estimates of the size of the markets for Dow’s products and services and Dow’s ability to compete in such markets; expectations related to the rate and degree of market acceptance of Dow’s products; the outcome of certain Dow contingencies, such as litigation and environmental matters; estimates of the success of competing technologies that may become available and expectations regarding the benefits and costs associated with each of the foregoing.

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Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and expectations of future events which may not be realized and speak only as of the date the statements were made. In addition, forward-looking statements also involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that are beyond Dow’s control that could cause Dow’s actual results to differ materially from those projected, anticipated or implied in the forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to: fluctuations in energy and raw material prices; failure to develop and market new products and optimally manage product life cycles; significant litigation and environmental matters; failure to appropriately manage process safety and product stewardship issues; changes in laws and regulations or political conditions; global economic and capital markets conditions, such as inflation, market uncertainty, interest and currency exchange rates, and equity and commodity prices; business or supply disruptions; security threats, such as acts of sabotage, terrorism or war; weather events and natural disasters; ability to protect, defend and enforce Dow’s intellectual property rights; increased competition; changes in relationships with Dow’s significant customers and suppliers; unanticipated expenses such as litigation or legal settlement expenses; unanticipated business disruptions; Dow’s ability to predict, identify and interpret changes in consumer preferences and demand; Dow’s ability to complete proposed divestitures or acquisitions; Dow’s ability to realize the expected benefits of acquisitions if they are completed; the availability of financing to Dow in the future and the terms and conditions of such financing; and disruptions in Dow’s information technology networks and systems. Additionally, there may be other risks and uncertainties that Dow is unable to identify at this time or that Dow does not currently expect to have a material impact on its business.

Risks related to achieving the anticipated benefits of Dow's separation from DowDuPont include, but are not limited to, a number of conditions outside the control of Dow, including risks related to (i) Dow's inability to achieve some or all of the benefits that it expects to receive from the separation from DowDuPont, (ii) certain tax risks associated with the separation, (iii) Dow's inability to make necessary changes to operate as a stand-alone company, (iv) the failure of Dow's pro forma financial information to be a reliable indicator of Dow's future results, (v) Dow's inability to enjoy the same benefits of diversity, leverage and market reputation that it enjoyed as a combined company, (vi) Dow's inability to receive third-party consents required under the separation agreement, (vii) Dow's customers, suppliers and others' perception of Dow's financial stability on a stand-alone basis, (viii) non-compete restrictions under the separation agreement, (ix) receipt of less favorable terms in the commercial agreements Dow entered into with DuPont and Corteva, Inc. ("Corteva"), including restrictions under intellectual property cross-license agreements, than Dow would have received from an unaffiliated third party; and (x) Dow's obligation to indemnify DuPont and/or Corteva for certain liabilities.

Where, in any forward-looking statement, an expectation or belief as to future results or events is expressed, such expectation or belief is based on the current plans and expectations of management and expressed in good faith and believed to have a reasonable basis, but there can be no assurance that the expectation or belief will result or be achieved or accomplished. A detailed discussion of principal risks and uncertainties which may cause actual results and events to differ materially from such forward-looking statements is included in the section of this Annual Report on Form 10-K titled “Risk Factors.” Dow Inc. and TDCC assume no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities and other applicable laws.

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	Dow Inc. and Subsidiaries
	The Dow Chemical Company and Subsidiaries
	PART I

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

THE COMPANY

Dow Inc. was incorporated on August 30, 2018, under Delaware law, to serve as a holding company for The Dow Chemical Company and its consolidated subsidiaries ("TDCC" and together with Dow Inc., "Dow" or the "Company"). Dow Inc. operates all of its businesses through TDCC, a wholly owned subsidiary, which was incorporated in 1947 under Delaware law and is the successor to a Michigan corporation, of the same name, organized in 1897. The Company's principal executive offices are located at 2211 H.H. Dow Way, Midland, Michigan 48674.

Available Information

The Company's Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, are available free of charge at www.dow.com/investors, as soon as reasonably practicable after the reports are electronically filed or furnished with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). The SEC maintains a website that contains these reports as well as proxy statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically. The SEC's website is at www.sec.gov. Dow's website and its content are not deemed incorporated by reference into this report.

MERGER AND SEPARATION

On April 1, 2019, DowDuPont Inc. (“DowDuPont” and effective June 3, 2019, n/k/a DuPont de Nemours, Inc. or "DuPont") completed the separation of its materials science business and Dow Inc. became the direct parent company of TDCC and its consolidated subsidiaries, owning all of the outstanding common shares of TDCC.

The separation was contemplated by the merger of equals transaction effective August 31, 2017, under the Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated as of December 11, 2015, as amended on March 31, 2017. TDCC and E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company and its consolidated subsidiaries (“Historical DuPont”) each merged with subsidiaries of DowDuPont and, as a result, TDCC and Historical DuPont became subsidiaries of DowDuPont (the “Merger”). Subsequent to the Merger, TDCC and Historical DuPont engaged in a series of internal reorganization and realignment steps to realign their businesses into three subgroups: agriculture, materials science and specialty products. Dow Inc. was formed as a wholly owned subsidiary of DowDuPont to serve as the holding company for the materials science business.

As of the effective date and time of the distribution, DowDuPont does not beneficially own any equity interest in Dow and no longer consolidates Dow and its consolidated subsidiaries into its financial results. The consolidated financial results of Dow for periods prior to April 1, 2019, reflect the distribution of TDCC’s agricultural sciences business (“AgCo”) and specialty products business (“SpecCo”) as discontinued operations for each period presented as well as reflect the receipt of Historical DuPont’s ethylene and ethylene copolymers businesses (other than its ethylene acrylic elastomers business) (“ECP”) as a common control transaction from the closing of the Merger on August 31, 2017. See Notes 3 and 4 to the Consolidated Financial Statements and Dow Inc.'s Amendment No. 4 to the Registration Statement on Form 10 filed with the SEC on March 8, 2019, for additional information.

Throughout this Annual Report on Form 10-K, unless otherwise indicated, amounts and activity are presented on a continuing operations basis.

About Dow

Dow combines global breadth, asset integration and scale, focused innovation and leading business positions to achieve profitable growth. The Company’s ambition is to become the most innovative, customer centric, inclusive and sustainable materials science company. Dow’s portfolio of plastics, industrial intermediates, coatings and silicones businesses delivers a broad range of differentiated science-based products and solutions for its customers in high-growth market segments, such as packaging, infrastructure and consumer care. Dow operates 109 manufacturing sites in 31 countries and employs approximately 36,500 people.

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BUSINESS SEGMENTS AND PRODUCTS

Effective with the Merger, TDCC's business activities were components of DowDuPont's business operations and were reported as a single operating segment. Following the separation from DowDuPont, the Company changed the manner in which its business activities were managed. The Company's portfolio now includes six global businesses which are organized into the following operating segments: Packaging & Specialty Plastics, Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure and Performance Materials & Coatings. Corporate contains the reconciliation between the totals for the operating segments and the Company's totals. The Company did not aggregate any operating segments when determining its reportable segments. See Part II, Item 7, Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and Note 27 to the Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information concerning the Company’s operating segments.

PACKAGING & SPECIALTY PLASTICS

Packaging & Specialty Plastics consists of two highly integrated global businesses: Hydrocarbons & Energy and Packaging and Specialty Plastics. The segment employs the industry’s broadest polyolefin product portfolio, supported by the Company’s proprietary catalyst and manufacturing process technologies, to work at the customer’s design table throughout the value chain to deliver more reliable and durable, higher performing, and more sustainable plastics to customers in food and specialty packaging; industrial and consumer packaging; health and hygiene; caps, closures and pipe applications; consumer durables; automotive; and infrastructure.

The Company’s unique advantages compared with its competitors include: extensive low-cost feedstock positions around the world; unparalleled scale, global footprint and market reach, with world-class manufacturing sites in every geography; deep customer and brand owner understanding; portfolio of higher-value functional polymers, such as polyolefin elastomers, semiconductive and jacketing compound solutions and wire and cable insulation; and market-driven application development and technical support.

The segment remains agile and adaptive by participating in the entire ethylene-to-polyethylene chain integration, enabling the Company to manage market swings, and therefore optimize returns while reducing long-term earnings volatility. The Company’s unrivaled value chain ownership is further strengthened by its Pack Studio locations in every geography, which help customers and brand owners deliver faster and more efficient packaging product commercialization through a global network of laboratories, technical experts and testing equipment.

Hydrocarbons & Energy

Hydrocarbons & Energy is the largest global producer of ethylene, a key chemical building block that the Company consumes primarily within the Packaging & Specialty Plastics segment. Ethylene is transferred to downstream derivative businesses at market-based prices, which are generally equivalent to prevailing market prices for large volume purchases. In addition to ethylene, the business is a leading producer of propylene and aromatics products that are used to manufacture materials that consumers use every day. The business also produces and procures the power and feedstocks used by the Company’s manufacturing sites.

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. The business is a recognized leader in the production, marketing and innovation of polyethylene. The business is also a leader in other ethylene derivatives, such as polyolefin elastomers, ethylene vinyl acetate 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.

Divestiture

On September 1, 2017, the Company sold its global Ethylene Acrylic Acid copolymers and ionomers business to SK Global Chemical Co., Ltd. See Note 6 to the Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information.

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Details on Packaging & Specialty Plastics' 2019 net sales, by business and geographic region, are as follows:

* Europe, Middle East, Africa and India ("EMEAI")

Products

Major applications/market segments and products are listed below by business:



Business	Applications/Market Segments	Major Products	Key Raw Materials	Key Competitors
Hydrocarbons & Energy	Purchaser of feedstocks; production of cost competitive hydrocarbon monomers utilized by Dow's derivative businesses; and energy, principally for use in Dow’s global operations	Ethylene, propylene, benzene, butadiene, octene, aromatics co-products, power, steam, other utilities	Butane, condensate, ethane, naphtha, natural gas, propane	Chevron Phillips Chemical, ExxonMobil, INEOS, LyondellBasell, SABIC, Shell, Sinopec
Packaging and Specialty Plastics	Adhesives; automotive; caps, closures and pipe applications; construction; cosmetics; electrical transmission and distribution; food and supply chain packaging; footwear; health and hygiene; housewares; industrial specialty applications using polyolefin elastomers, ethylene copolymers, and ethylene propylene diene monomer ("EPDM") elastomers; irrigation pipe; photovoltaic encapsulants; sporting goods; telecommunications infrastructure; toys and infant products	Acrylics, bio-based plasticizers, copolymer, elastomers, ethylene copolymer resins, EPDM, ethylene vinyl acetate ("EVA"), methacrylic acid copolymer resins, polyethylene ("PE"), high-density polyethylene ("HDPE"), low-density polyethylene ("LDPE"), linear low-density polyethylene ("LLDPE"), polyolefin plastomers, resin additives and modifiers, semiconductive and jacketing compound solutions and wire and cable insulation	Aliphatic solvent, butene, ethylene, hexene, octene, propylene	Borealis, ExxonMobil, INEOS, Lanxess, LyondellBasell, Nova, SABIC

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Joint Ventures

This segment includes a portion of the Company's share of the results of the following joint ventures:


•	EQUATE Petrochemical Company K.S.C.C. (“EQUATE”) - a Kuwait-based company that manufactures ethylene, polyethylene and ethylene glycol, and manufactures and markets monoethylene glycol, diethylene glycol and polyethylene terephthalate resins; owned 42.5 percent by the Company.


•	The Kuwait Olefins Company K.S.C.C. (“TKOC”) - a Kuwait-based company that manufactures ethylene and ethylene glycol; owned 42.5 percent by the Company.

•

Map Ta Phut Olefins Company Limited (“Map Ta Phut”) - a Thailand-based company that manufactures propylene and ethylene; the Company has an effective ownership of 32.77 percent (of which 20.27 percent is owned directly by the Company and aligned with the Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure segment and 12.5 percent is owned indirectly through the Company’s equity interest in Siam Polyethylene Company Limited, an entity that is part of The SCG-Dow Group and aligned with the Packaging & Specialty Plastics segment).

•

Sadara Chemical Company ("Sadara") - a Saudi Arabian company that manufactures chlorine, ethylene, propylene and aromatics for internal consumption and manufactures and sells polyethylene, ethylene oxide and propylene oxide derivative products, and isocyanates; owned 35 percent by the Company. The Company is responsible for marketing a majority of Sadara products outside of the Middle East zone through the Company’s established sales channels. As part of this arrangement, the Company purchases and sells Sadara products for a marketing fee.

This segment also includes the Company's share of the results of the following joint ventures:


•	The Kuwait Styrene Company K.S.C.C. (“TKSC”) - a Kuwait-based company that manufactures styrene monomer; owned 42.5 percent by the Company.


•	The SCG-Dow Group - a group of Thailand-based companies (consisting of Siam Polyethylene Company Limited; Siam Polystyrene Company Limited; Siam Styrene Monomer Company Limited; and Siam Synthetic Latex Company Limited) that manufacture polyethylene, polystyrene, styrene, latex and specialty elastomers; owned 50 percent by the Company.

Current and Future Investments

In 2017, the Company announced the startup of its new integrated world-scale ethylene production facility and its new ELITE™ Enhanced Polyethylene production facility, both located in Freeport, Texas. In 2018, the Company started up its new LDPE production facility and its new NORDEL™ Metallocene EPDM production facility, both located in Plaquemine, Louisiana. These key milestones enable the Company to capture benefits from increasing supplies of U.S. shale gas to deliver differentiated downstream solutions in its core market verticals. The Company also completed debottlenecking of an existing bi-modal gas phase polyethylene production facility in St. Charles, Louisiana, and started up a new High Melt Index ("HMI") AFFINITY™ polymer production facility in Freeport, Texas, in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Additionally, the Company has announced investments over the next five years that are expected to enhance competitiveness. These include:


•	Expansion of the capacity of the Company’s new ethylene production facility in Freeport, TX, bringing the facility’s total ethylene capacity to 2,000 kilotonnes per annum ("KTA") and making it the largest ethylene cracker in the world.


•	Incremental debottleneck projects across its global asset network that will deliver approximately 350 KTA of additional polyethylene, the majority of which will be in U.S. & Canada.


•	Construction of a world-scale polyethylene unit on the U.S. Gulf Coast based on Dow’s proprietary process technologies, to meet consumer-driven demand in specialty packaging, health and hygiene, and industrial and consumer packaging applications.


•	A new catalyst production facility for key catalysts licensed by Univation Technologies, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company.

•

On January 29, 2020, the Company announced plans to add another furnace to its ethylene production facility in Alberta, Canada, incrementally expanding capacity by approximately 130,000 metric tons. Dow will co-invest in the expansion with a regional customer, evenly sharing project costs and ethylene output, with the additional ethylene to be consumed by existing polyethylene manufacturing assets in the region. The expansion is expected to come online in the first half of 2021.

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The Company's ambition includes becoming the most sustainable materials science company in the world with a strategy to advance the well-being of humanity by helping lead the transition to a sustainable planet and society. This includes lowering energy and greenhouse gas emissions ("GHG") and enabling a shift to a circular economy for plastics by focusing on resource efficiency and integrating recycled content and renewable feedstocks into its production processes. As part of that strategy, Dow announced the following in August 2019:

•

An agreement with the Fuenix Ecogy Group, based in Weert, The Netherlands, for the supply of pyrolysis oil feedstock, which is made from recycled plastic waste. The feedstock will be used to produce virgin polymers at Dow’s production facilities in Terneuzen, The Netherlands. This is an important step forward to increase feedstock recycling - the process of breaking down mixed waste plastics into their original form to manufacture new virgin polymers. The polymers produced from this pyrolysis oil will be identical to products produced from traditional feedstocks, and as such, they can be used in the same applications, including food packaging.

•

An agreement with UPM Biofuels, a producer of biofuels, for the supply and integration of wood-based UPM Bio Verno renewable naphtha - a key raw material used to develop plastics - into Dow's slate of raw materials, creating an alternative source for plastics production. The feedstock will be used to produce bio-based polyethylene at Dow's production facilities in Terneuzen, The Netherlands, for use in packaging applications such as food packaging, to reduce food waste.

•

The retrofit of one of its Louisiana steam crackers with Dow’s proprietary fluidized catalytic dehydrogenation ("FCDh") technology to produce on-purpose propylene. The FCDh technology retrofit further improves Dow’s ability to continue to source the most advantaged feedstocks, while also producing reliable and cost-efficient on-purpose propylene to supply its integrated derivative units in Louisiana. The technology reduces capital outlay by up to 25 percent and lowers energy usage and GHG by up to 20 percent, thereby improving overall sustainability when compared with conventional propane dehydrogenation technologies. The project is expected to begin producing on-purpose propylene by the end of 2021.