Dow Inc.

What they make

25 inputs Dow Inc. supplies

Click an input to see every good that depends on it, every country that produces it, and every other company in the supply chain.

Where they make it

3 facilities

Intelligence

What's known

Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains, chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.

• Incident

  A silicone scare reshaped who is even willing to sell medical raw materials. In the 1990s, mass litigation alleging silicone BREAST IMPLANTS caused autoimmune disease drove Dow Corning into bankruptcy with a ~$3.2 BILLION settlement — even though later large epidemiological studies found no consistent autoimmune link. The fallout: terrified raw-material suppliers REFUSED to sell silicone (and other polymers) to permanent-implant makers, creating a "biomaterials availability crisis" that Congress had to fix with the Biomaterials Access Assurance Act of 1998, shielding upstream suppliers from downstream device liability. So a single tort wave nearly cut off the basic feedstock for implantable medicine — a lasting lesson in how legal risk, not chemistry, can break a supply chain.

  U.S. FDA / U.S. Congress ↗

• Did you know2023

  Dow's polyethylene resins — primarily LLDPE and HDPE produced at Freeport, Texas — flow into three separate critical infrastructure supply chains from the same Texas petrochemical complex: (1) Food packaging film — LLDPE flexible film wraps fresh produce, meat, and cheese; Dow is the world's largest producer of packaging polyethylene; food safety in grocery retail depends on Dow film preventing contamination and extending shelf life; (2) IV fluid bags — LLDPE/polypropylene multilayer film is the primary material for modern IV solution bags (replacing glass bottles); B. Braun's Excel bags, Baxter's Galaxy bags, and Fresenius Kabi's non-PVC bags are all made from polyolefin film derived ultimately from Dow and peer resin producers; (3) HDPE water and gas distribution pipe — HDPE resin is extruded into large-diameter pressure pipe for municipal water mains, gas distribution, and irrigation; replacing older cast iron and steel pipe. Hurricane-induced shutdowns at Freeport Texas (most recently Hurricane Harvey 2017) simultaneously threaten food packaging film production, IV bag material supply, and pipe resin for water infrastructure replacement — three distinct critical systems from one Gulf Coast site.

  Dow Inc. ↗