The Dow Chemical Company will stop producing and marketing hydroxyalkyl acrylates (HAA) by the end of the year.
The HAA product line includes hydroxyethyl acrylate (HEA) and hydroxypropyl acrylate (HPA). These products are sold largely to major coatings formulators for use in automotive topcoat applications.
'Dow’s competitiveness in the HAA market has deteriorated significantly as a result of high raw material costs, industry overcapacity and declining demand with a shift to low acid HAA products,' explained Chris Kok, global HAA product manager.
'After carefully reviewing our options, we believe that we can generate more value by directing our resources and capital towards other promising growth initiatives,' he added.
Dow will work with its customers to manage last-time orders, which must be in by December 12, 2007, with delivery no later than November 12, 2008.
This decision has no impact on Dow’s acrylic acid and acrylic ester businesses. Dow manages those products independently from the HAA line.
Babcock marks next stage in submarine dismantling project
Surely on a national security project all contractors ought to be UK owned? This is similar to the life enhancement of our nuclear stations which has...