DOW CHEMICAL TO EXPAND LUDINGTON CALCIUM CHLORIDE PLANT 

The Dow Chemical Company is expanding its dry calcium chloride capacity at its Ludington, Mich., production facility. Expansion activities will begin immediately, supporting Dow’s strategic focus to invest in products and technologies that deliver long-term sustainable growth and value to the company.

For nearly 100 years Dow has provided customers with high quality calcium chloride products for a myriad of applications, including de-icing, oilfield completion fluids, dust palliatives and concrete acceleration.

Due to steady growth in demand and recent changes in the calcium chloride market, flake and pellet forms of calcium chloride have been in short supply. As the largest global producer of these products, Dow intends to install equipment delivering 30 per cent more dry calcium chloride to the market. Activities have been initiated to deliver new pellet calcium chloride supplies to the market by the third quarter of 2006 with additional flake calcium chloride available by the second quarter of 2007.

“These expansion projects build on numerous investments made during the last three years beginning in 2003 with the construction of a 27 mile pipeline, allowing us access to new brine supplies,” said Bill Berrett, general manager for the business. “Numerous projects since then have further improved Dow’s operating reliability. We are now well positioned with both the fluids and core evaporation capabilities to bring a significant amount of new flake and pellet calcium chloride to the market in relatively short order.”

“North American customers, who are often forced to depend on imported products from overseas, will soon have additional local supply options. Married to Dow’s outstanding terminal network and packaging infrastructure which currently exists, our distributors will become ever more successful growing their businesses,” said Greg MacDonnell, senior marketing manager for Dry Calcium Chloride.