China's economy is entering a new phase of high-quality development, with "new quality productive forces" serving as the core engine driving industrial upgrading and green transformation. Strategic emerging industries such as new energy, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, and advanced manufacturing are rapidly expanding. Building on scale advantages, industrial and supply chains are increasingly characterized by digitalization, green development, and enhanced collaboration. Concurrently, as the global supply chain landscape continues to evolve, China, with its comprehensive industrial system, efficient infrastructure, and continuously improving business environment, remains a vital market for multinational corporations seeking deep cooperation and innovation implementation. Guided by the "Dual Carbon" goals, the circular economy, clean energy, and low-carbon technologies are transitioning from concepts to large-scale practice, presenting new responsibilities and opportunities for businesses.
Against this macro backdrop, an interview was conducted with the President of Dow Chemical Greater China, focusing on market opportunities, localization practices, sustainable development, and industrial chain collaboration. The discussion explored how multinational companies can seize structural opportunities, balance global technology with local needs, align with national "Dual Carbon" strategies, and deepen their presence in China to empower industrial upgrading.
**Sina Finance: As Dow Chemical's second-largest market globally, Greater China holds a pivotal position in the company's worldwide business portfolio. With China's increasing policy support and market demand in areas like new energy, semiconductors, and advanced manufacturing, what key opportunities does Dow Chemical identify in these sectors?**
The President of Dow Chemical Greater China responded: Dow Chemical is a materials science company with nearly 130 years of history and has been deeply rooted in the Chinese market for nearly half a century. Today, Greater China is not only Dow Chemical's second-largest global market but also one of its most critical strategic growth regions.
The Chinese market possesses both scale advantages and development potential, featuring a rare, complete manufacturing industrial chain and an efficient logistics system globally. This is crucial for materials science companies to conduct local R&D, manufacturing, and application innovation. Furthermore, against a backdrop of global economic uncertainties, China's continuous efforts to optimize the business environment for foreign investment have bolstered long-term investment and development confidence for multinational corporations, including Dow Chemical.
Currently, "new quality productive forces" have become a significant engine for achieving high-quality, sustainable development in the Chinese market. China provides Dow Chemical with vast opportunities to translate cutting-edge materials science technologies into practical, scalable, and sustainable solutions.
For instance, in the new energy sector, areas like new energy batteries, energy storage systems, and infrastructure development place higher demands on material safety, reliability, and sustainability. Dow Chemical's long-term expertise in high-performance materials and system-level solutions aligns well with these needs. Examples include: an elastic thermally conductive structural adhesive developed in China that can extend the service life of new energy vehicle power battery systems, improve mechanical performance, and enhance production assembly efficiency; polyolefin elastomers provided for photovoltaic encapsulation films, enabling sufficient cross-linking in shorter lamination times, thus helping customers reduce production energy consumption while maintaining performance; and materials for submarine high-voltage and extra-high-voltage cables, which have been applied in key wind power projects in Zhejiang, Shanghai, Hebei, and elsewhere, enhancing cable system stability.
China's AI, big data, semiconductor, and electronics industries are advancing towards higher-end and more precise development. Addressing thermal management and energy consumption challenges from high-computing power growth, Dow Chemical is committed to promoting cooling technology innovation. This aims to build reliable, efficient, sustainable, and future-oriented data infrastructure for next-generation computing power, supporting low-carbon, environmentally friendly, and high-performance stable operation for future data centers. In November 2025, Dow Chemical established its first global "Thermal Management Materials Science Lab" in Shanghai to accelerate collaborative innovation and technology transfer with Chinese customers, supporting the development of AI, IoT, robotics, and automation industries.
In the continuously growing new energy vehicle industry, the application of advanced materials science solutions is deepening. Dow Chemical empowers the smart mobility ecosystem with materials technology, facilitating a rapid transition from technological innovation to industrial application. In March 2026, the second phase of Dow Chemical's "Thermal Management Materials Science Lab," namely the "Automotive Intelligence Platform," was inaugurated in Shanghai. Through deep collaboration with local customers and partners, this platform accelerates the R&D and application of advanced material solutions, actively addressing challenges in smart electric vehicles, autonomous driving, and smart robotics.
For Dow Chemical, the current booming sectors are not short-term trends but represent structural opportunities within long-term industrial upgrading. The company will continue to leverage its global technology and R&D strengths, combined with market insights from its local Chinese team, to collaborate with customers and value chain partners for long-term, sustainable development.
**Sina Finance: In recent years, China's regulatory environment, competitive landscape, and consumer demands have been changing rapidly. What is the biggest challenge Dow Chemical faces in adapting to these changes, and how does the company balance its global technological advantages with the differentiated needs of the local Chinese market?**
The President stated: The Chinese market continues to evolve in terms of regulatory frameworks, industrial structure, and customer and consumer demands. For Dow Chemical, the greatest challenge lies in maintaining long-term strategic focus and competitiveness amidst these changes.
China is a vibrant, large market characterized by scale advantages, rapid innovation speed, and policy dividends. In China, Dow Chemical has established a complete network based on commercial organizations, world-leading manufacturing bases, and innovation centers, covering procurement, R&D, production, and service. The company consistently monitors market dynamics, fully utilizes global resources, and combines them with local development and service capabilities to actively seek business opportunities. This is particularly true in high-end, high-value customer industries, where it provides innovative solutions that balance consumer needs with environmental protection.
In recent years, the company has allocated more R&D resources to sustainable development, actively creating safer, greener, low-carbon, and recyclable innovative materials. This comprehensive support helps customers achieve breakthroughs and success in fast-growing markets, enabling them to develop high-tech, high-performance, high-quality, and sustainable products.
Dow Chemical's competitiveness in China stems from the integration of global capabilities and local insight: The company continuously enhances its own strength, leveraging global R&D advantages and technological积累 to maintain high standards and consistency in material performance, safety, and sustainability; it drives application innovation guided by local demand, deepening collaborative cooperation with customers and upstream/downstream partners to transform global technologies into solutions better suited to Chinese market applications; and it adheres to a long-term perspective, focusing on growing together with customers and the industry, using mutual success and co-creation to navigate changes in the macro environment, market trends, and consumer demands.
Looking ahead, despite ongoing evolution in the market environment and competitive landscape, Dow Chemical will continue to leverage its materials science strengths, deeply participate in high-end intelligent manufacturing and the construction of a low-carbon circular economy, and assist industries and customers in achieving transformation and upgrading in innovation and sustainability.
**Sina Finance: Sustainable development has become a core issue for global enterprises, and China's "Dual Carbon" goals bring new responsibilities and opportunities for multinational companies. How does Dow Chemical's sustainability strategy in China align with the national "Dual Carbon" goals? What specific measures and innovative practices exist in emissions reduction, circular economy, and green supply chain development?**
The President explained: According to Dow Chemical's published plans, by 2030, the company aims to reduce net carbon emissions by 5 million metric tons annually globally, representing a 15% overall reduction from 2020 levels, and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. In China, Dow Chemical has the same targets, and its strategy balancing decarbonization initiatives with business growth is highly consistent with China's "Dual Carbon" goals.
Currently, approximately 90% of Dow Chemical's R&D projects focus on sustainability, with a target of 100%. The company deeply recognizes its responsibility in addressing climate change and achieving net-zero carbon emissions and focuses on three sustainability directions: climate protection, circular economy, and safer materials.
Regarding climate protection, Dow Chemical is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating the impact of climate change on natural ecosystems like air, water, and land. It continuously optimizes manufacturing processes, promotes technological upgrades, and transitions its energy mix to lower emissions and enhance environmental resilience at its production sites and surrounding communities.
In China, Dow Chemical actively introduces renewable energy sources like hydropower and solar into production processes and explores emission reduction technologies, including carbon capture. The Zhangjiagang production base, one of the largest in Dow Chemical's Asia-Pacific region, aims for green electricity to account for 50% of its power consumption by 2025. The base is also exploring the use of green steam with steam suppliers within the industrial park.
Furthermore, the company places great emphasis on the circular economy, believing it is essential for building a sustainable future, with materials science playing a key role in transforming material production, use, and reuse. Currently, plastic waste is a global environmental focus. China, as an active participant, contributor, and leader in global plastic waste management, plays an indispensable role.
Dow Chemical focuses on the full lifecycle management of materials, from design to recycling. In China, it collaborates with leading brands and local value chain partners to recycle plastic waste, including milk bottles, water bottles, juice bottles, and flexible films. This recycled content is combined with a proportion of low-carbon virgin materials to create post-consumer recycled (PCR) resin, helping customers balance performance, design, and sustainability. Products containing PCR are now used not only in secondary packaging stretch films and wire/cable sheathing but also widely in everyday consumer goods like artificial grass yarns, yoga mats, footwear materials, automotive care packaging, and personal care packaging.
As the "Dual Carbon" goals advance, consumer attention to product green attributes is increasing. In 2025, Dow Chemical partnered with a recycling company and an automotive care brand to launch a full lifecycle traceability solution for plastic recycling. Utilizing AI and smart labels, it enhances recycling efficiency and transparency, encouraging consumer participation through smart recycling bins and incentive mechanisms.
In practice, Dow Chemical strives for smarter material design, achieving desired functionality with less material. Without compromising product protection or user experience, flexible plastic packaging offers a practical path to reducing material usage and carbon emissions. Addressing the challenges of recycling flexible plastics, Dow Chemical vigorously develops and promotes mono-material solutions that maintain performance while improving recyclability, making products compatible with existing recycling systems for high-value reuse. Since 2022, Dow Chemical has actively participated in the "Flexible Plastic New Life" project initiated by the Green Recycled Plastics Supply Chain Joint Working Group (GRPG). Collaborating with cross-industry partners, it explores flexible plastic recycling and high-value utilization paths suitable for the Chinese market, aiming to establish replicable, scalable circular economy practices before the carbon peak target date.
The third direction is safer materials. Dow Chemical is committed to ensuring its materials are designed with the safety of people and the planet in mind from the outset. It continuously develops material solutions that meet customer needs while serving the entire value chain, paying close attention to global regulatory trends.
By optimizing its product portfolio, developing alternative materials, and incorporating predictive toxicology and sustainability assessment tools in early R&D stages, Dow Chemical consistently applies safer materials in various scenarios like automotive, construction, and personal care. This meets performance requirements while reducing environmental and health risks.
Internally, Dow Chemical's R&D personnel use intelligent search and screening tools to quickly identify safer materials from hundreds of millions of chemicals, shortening the initial R&D screening process. Additionally, the company actively collaborates with governments, universities, and research institutions to share chemical management experience and promote the development and application of safer materials.
In advancing sustainability, Dow Chemical places high importance on social responsibility. Partnering with governments, non-profit organizations, and community groups, it carries out diverse public welfare initiatives. Last year, Dow Chemical implemented 7 key community projects in Greater China, focusing on sustainable development, STEM and vocational skills education, and community prosperity. These efforts mobilized over 1,000 employee volunteers and benefited more than 90,000 people. While practicing corporate social responsibility, Dow Chemical remains dedicated to translating materials science innovations into tangible social value. For example, it recently co-launched a medical mattress donation project, providing 3D air-fiber medical mattresses utilizing Dow Chemical innovation to hospitals, medical institutions, and elderly care facilities in Shanghai. These mattresses, easy to clean and physically recyclable, offer more comfortable and safe care for long-term bedridden or mobility-impaired individuals while promoting sustainable products and concepts at the community level.
**Sina Finance: From the perspective of a multinational company deeply engaged in the Chinese market, how do you view the evolving role of China in the global industrial and supply chains over the next 3-5 years? How does Dow Chemical plan to further deepen its布局 in China to better integrate into the broader Chinese economic development and support the upgrading of related industries?**
The President shared: China possesses a rare, complete industrial chain system and efficient manufacturing and logistics capabilities globally, with its stability and resilience in the global supply chain becoming increasingly prominent. In recent years, China has made significant progress in modern logistics and advanced manufacturing. According to a 2025 supply chain development report, 80 national-level advanced manufacturing clusters now cover fields like high-end equipment and new energy; supply chain digital transformation is accelerating, empowered by emerging technologies; and Chinese companies are progressing from "product出海" and "capacity出海" towards "industrial chain/supply chain出海," with industrial clusters collaboratively building overseas ecosystems.
For Dow Chemical, first, China is not a single market but a crucial link in its global business system. The company has established a reliable and mature supply chain system in China, continuously improving its reliability, safety, and sustainability. In March 2025, the expansion project for downstream silicone products at the Zhangjiagang production base commenced operations, better serving industries like electronics, transportation, new energy, packaging, and construction to support high-quality, sustainable development in China.
Second, leveraging China's complete industrial ecosystem and efficient value chain system, Dow Chemical will continue to deepen collaborative cooperation with upstream and downstream partners. Working with local customers, partners, and research institutions, it will promote application-oriented innovation, actively participate in the development of industries like AI, new energy, and advanced manufacturing, and jointly build a more resilient and efficient industrial ecosystem.
Third, as Chinese companies accelerate their "going global" efforts, Dow Chemical hopes to utilize its global network and technological resources to support their local development in China while also helping them achieve higher standards and more sustainable development in international markets. Therefore, Dow Chemical will continue to enhance manufacturing and supply chain resilience, optimize its product portfolio and operational models, and use digital intelligence手段 to improve response speed and service capability, more flexibly and efficiently meeting the diverse and differentiated needs of the Chinese market.
Additionally, Dow Chemical will advance solutions related to decarbonization, circularity, and resource efficiency, increasing investment in recyclable materials, recycling systems, and green design. This will support the green transformation of customers and industries and contribute tangibly to achieving China's "Dual Carbon" goals.
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