The Dow Chemical Company from Midland, Michigan, is one of the world’s leading chemical companies. It was founded in 1897 by chemist Herbert Henry Dow, who had invented a new extraction method for bromine. Originally, the company only sold potassium bromide and bleach, but subsequently diversified to become a major agricultural chemical producer. In September 2017, the Dow Chemical Company and E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont) completed their merger, forming one of the largest chemical manufacturing companies in the world. Then, in April 2019, the DowDuPont conglomerate separated into three companies: Dow, dedicated to commodity chemicals; DuPont, dedicated to specialty chemicals; and
, dedicated to agricultural chemicals and seeds.
Dow's financial standing
Based on
revenue, the spun-off Dow is the second leading chemical company worldwide behind German chemical manufacturer,
BASF. In 2022, Dow reported a total revenue of around 56.9 billion U.S. dollars. About 34
percent of Dow's revenue was generated in the United States. There are four
operating segments of Dow. The largest two are Packaging & Specialty Plastics and Industrial Intermediates and Infrastructure, responsible for more than 80 percent of Dow’s total revenue. As of March 2023,
Dow’s market capitalization stood at some 39.85 billion U.S. dollars, which placed the company among the top 10 chemical companies worldwide.
R&D and company personnel of Dow
Approximately 851 million U.S. dollars, a 1.5 percent share of the company’s total revenue, was spent on
Dow's research and development in 2022. This share remained relatively stable over the past four years. In 2022,
Dow employed some 37,800 people worldwide. Nearly half of those people were employed in the United States and Canada.
Dow's company controversy
Although the company has long been known for the products it produces, such as Saran food wrap, the company has also been involved in some high-profile lawsuits and scandals over the years. During the 1960s and 1970s, Dow produced napalm and Agent Orange that was used in the Vietnam war. As recently as 2019, Dow settled a 77 million U.S. dollar lawsuit over the release of dioxin-related compounds and other hazardous substances from the company’s facility in Midland. Over the past few years,
Dow's emissions have decreased gradually, however.
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