DOW Chemical Company is to invest in a new manufacturing facility for its Dow Coating Materials (DCM) business unit in Saudi Arabia. The facility, which will be located at the Jubail Industrial City, will manufacture a wide range of coating materials for both the kingdom and export markets worldwide.

“With an unmatched specialty portfolio of advanced materials, we constantly aim at bringing customers differentiation and solving global challenges locally together,” says Jerome Peribere, executive vice-president of Dow Chemical Company and president and chief executive officer, Dow Advanced Materials Division (AMD). “By investing in a new coatings facility in Saudi Arabia, we are moving closer to our regional customers, and realising our regional business objectives in a key growth market for Dow.”

“Our investment in a new world-class coatings facility will support our growth ambitions by bringing the most advanced and sustainable coating materials to the Saudi market and by enabling us to deliver innovation that is tailored to the region’s needs,” says Dr Ilham Kadri, general manager, AMD Middle East and Africa.

“We are committed to helping our customers rethink coatings by working closely with paint and coating formulators worldwide to develop breakthrough technologies that are differentiated. Our new investment in Saudi Arabia will deliver the solutions our regional customers want, without compromising on cost or sustainability profile,” says Anton Van Beek, general manager, DCM Europe, Middle East and Africa (Emea).

A premier supplier of products and technologies to architectural and industrial coatings manufacturers, DCM has 43 manufacturing plants worldwide and 13 research and development (R&D) facilities across all major geographic markets where Dow does business.

The new facility is the latest in a series of investments to be announced by Dow in Saudi Arabia. Last July, Dow and Saudi Aramco announced an agreement to form Sadara Chemical Company, a joint venture to build and operate a world-scale, fully-integrated chemicals complex in Jubail Industrial City. Dow also recently announced plans to invest in a best-in-class manufacturing facility for Dow Filmtec reverse osmosis (RO) elements in the kingdom.