Dow cancels N. American supply agreement with Ashland Distribution

The Dow Chemical Company is terminating Ashland Distribution‘s supply agreement for distribution of Dow plastics in North America.
The termination will be effective March 1, 2007.
“While we regret Dow’s decision, we are prepared to respond quickly,” Ted Harris, president of Ashland Distribution, said. “Because of our partnerships with a variety of global plastics manufacturers, we are prepared to offer our customers a range of conversion options to meet their performance, quality and delivery needs.”
Columbus, Ohio-based Ashland Distribution, a division of Ashland Inc., is a distributor of chemicals, plastics, composite materials and environmental services. The company was responsible for handling sales of Dow’s polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS), polycarbonate (PC), as well as various alloys of engineering resins, thermoplastic polyolefin elastomers and thermoplastic polyurethane(TPU).
The company’s purchases of Dow plastics totaled US$170 million in 2006, which represented approximately five per cent of Ashland Distribution’s total materials purchases that year.
The decision by Dow is specific only to plastics distribution in North America. However, Ashland Distribution also has a plastics distribution contract with Dow in Europe, under which it purchased US$60 million of plastics in fiscal 2006, which could at some point be impacted, Ashland Distribution said in a statement.
Dow resins will continue to be distributed in Canada by Channel Prime Alliance and by PolyOne Corporation.