Dow to idle latex plants in California, Quebec

MIDLAND, MI, June 17, 2008 (Press Release) - The Dow Chemical Company announced today it will idle latex production facilities at Pittsburg, California, and Varennes, Quebec, by year end 2008. The latex plants are two of six facilities that serve the North American paper, carpet, and performance latex industries. Together, these two plants employ approximately 35 people. Every effort will be made to redeploy as many employees as possible to other roles on their respective sites but some redundancies will be unavoidable.

"The idling of our latex facilities in Pittsburg and Varennes was a difficult decision, but due to the reduction in industry demand and extreme energy and production costs, the decision was necessary," said Philippe Raynaud de Fitte, general manager, Dow Emulsion Polymers. "We believe we can better service the North American customer base by leveraging alternative manufacturing facilities and reduce overall structural costs by idling these locations."

Both plants will be fully idled by year end 2008. Beyond that timeframe, Dow will supply latex from other manufacturing locations across its grid in North America to service customer demand. Since Dow customers are served from a multiple manufacturing grid system rather than from individual sites, Dow anticipates no disruption in supply.