Dow Chemical to sue over venture back out

Dow Chemical has announced plans are being made to sue Petrochemical Industries, a Kuwaiti state-owned company that recently backed out on a joint venture called K-Dow Petrochemicals.

Dow owns local petrochemical operations at Plaquemine/Grand Bayou and a number of polyethylene production employees at Dow Louisiana plant on Hwy. 1 were slated to become part of the K-Dow joint venture.

Dow Chemicals hopes to recoup as much as

$2.5 billion from the scuttled deal if the suit is successful. In the meantime, Dow reports it already has begun talks with other investors to pursue a similar joint venture in the future. The chemical company still has plans to purchase Rohm & Haas, a specialty chemicals company, later this year. That potential deal has a $15.3 billion price tag.

Dow still plans to shutdown two plastics plants, but they are the smallest at the Plaquemine location and are old units. Dow employees at the units are expected to be moved to other production areas at the plant site.