Dow Schedules Maintenance Turnaround at Freeport, Texas, MDI Facility

Dow Polyurethanes, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company, will conduct a seven-day turnaround at its polymeric MDI (PMDI) production facility in Freeport, Texas, beginning April 15th. The system maintenance will help to ensure that global Dow customers supplied from this site will continue to receive high quality PMDI in a consistent and reliable manner.

Global demand for MDI, driven by demand for rigid foams used in construction materials, appliances and adhesives and sealants, is increasing at 6 percent to 7 percent annually. To address this growth, Dow announced in January 2007 a capacity expansion at the Freeport MDI facility that is expected to be completed over a period of 36 months.

“Consistent with the businesses’ commitment to being an efficient and dependable supplier, we attend to maintenance needs promptly to keep downtime to a minimum,” says Tom Feige, North American product marketing manager, Dow Polyurethanes. “While turnarounds can put added pressure on an already tight global MDI supply, we anticipate no disruptions to our customers receiving MDI shipments from Freeport during this shutdown.”