The companies on the Global 500 employ 70.2 million people, and their revenue represents more than one-third of the world’s GDP.

Fortune Global 500

With a combined revenue of $21 trillion and $2.1 trillion in profits, the 2026 Fortune 500 is the definitive list of America's largest companies.

Fortune 500

AI is a major force shaping this year’s list—but it’s far from the only story.

World's Most Admired Companies

This year's 100 Best Companies to Work For are rebuilding the social contract at work so people feel supported, trusted, and future-ready as they undergo that transition.

100 Best Places to Work 2026_Dow

Employees say:"Our 401K match is amazing alongside parental leave are unique. I also appreciate the flexibility in work location and work hours as needed. Leadership trusts me to do my job regardless of where I am located or when I am working, and I continue to deliver on this with mutual respect. I have almost always had a strong leader in my 10 years at the company. This includes someone who understands my interests, provides clear feedback, supports my growth, and challenges me appropriately."

Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For

The region's best workplaces put integrity, inclusion, and respect at the center of their workplace culture.

Great-Places-To-Work-Asia-2025_Team Photo_Dow

Dow ranks No. 88 on the 2025 Best Companies to Work For Southeast Asia.

Fortune 100 Best Companies To Work For – Southeast Asia

Organizations are assessed on their efforts to create great workplaces—and positively impact people and communities across the world.

Worlds-Best-Workplaces-2025_Dow Photo 2

Dow ranks No. 18 on the 2025 World’s 25 Best Workplaces list.

World’s 25 Best Workplaces

See which workplaces made this year's list.

2025_GPTW_ManufacturingProduction_Large_Dow_US1__685d54bb4f22a2fc232770e0_2

Employees say:"Dow has people who care. I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023, and I was blown away by the number of people from my current and past roles and teams who reached out to me for support. The support from other Dow team members is really what makes this company special! I had good leadership support and benefits, but it is the people who made me eager to come back to work."

Best Large Workplaces in Manufacturing and Production

The corporations on our annual list of the world's 500 largest companies combined to generate $41.7 trillion in revenue over the past year.

Almost $20 trillion in revenue—and a record-breaking $1.87 trillion in profits. Introducing the 2025 Fortune 500, the definitive list of the biggest companies in America.

The top companies on our list have one thing in common: Staff largely trust leadership to see them as well-rounded people and reward them for a job well done.

Global Dow Center in Midland, Michigan

Employees say: "Dow is a great place to work because I can always be myself. I have the opportunity to make a big difference not only to Dow's bottom line, but also the community and environment around us. We have many great perks and benefits that are really not comparable to other companies. Dow is led by an outstanding CEO who I feel is really part of the reason that Dow is such a great place to work."

Leaders in all industries rely more than ever on Big Tech—and appreciate the giants that deliver, at scale, without drama.

Organizations are assessed on their efforts to create great workplaces and positively impact people and communities across multiple countries around the world.

GPTW_World'sBestWorkplaces_2024-Dow_Showcase

Dow ranks No. 20 on the 2024 World’s 25 Best Workplaces list.

GPTW Manufacturing & Production Large 2024-DOW

Employees say:"Dow is a big company but operates like a small, family-oriented company. All of my colleagues are great, and we work so well together for Team Dow!"

The corporations on our annual list posted aggregate revenues of $41 trillion for the second year in a row.

Industries included in the sector are diversified and specialty chemical manufacturers.

Fortune Sector Leaders: Chemicals

The Fortune 500, in its 70th year in 2024, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

Creating a more empathetic workplace looks like staying loyal to workers, emphasizing D&I initiatives, and paying well.

100 Best Companies 2024-Dow

This is the fourth year Dow has made the list, and it climbed 10 spots this year. The plastics and industrial-supplies manufacturer operates sites in 31 countries, and 60% of its workforce have on-the-ground roles like plant operators, engineers, and maintenance workers. Off the ground, its workers include researchers, scientists, information systems professionals, and sales staff.&nbsp;&nbsp;Dow’s values, namely personal safety, inclusion and diversity, pay equity, and global humanitarian aid, are part of what makes it a great place to work. Dow offers opportunities to all employees to answer questions and voice concerns through 10 employee resource groups, which saw increased employee participation from 15% in 2017 to nearly 60% of employees this year.&nbsp;&nbsp;It also offers employees access to a well-being portal where they can access rewards for healthy habits—in the first half of last year, the company invested more than $5 million in rewards, and employees have redeemed almost $12 million since the portal launched.

The 26th edition of the list shows how much esteem Big Tech giants command among other business leaders.

The 25th Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies list suggests that tech giants’ peers respect them as much as ever.

Building a culture of trust and transparency is essential to help everyone thrive, especially in rocky economic times.

100 BEST COMPANIES 2023-Dow

Inclusivity is an ongoing priority for this manufacturer of plastics, silicones, and more, which has earned Dow a spot on the Best Companies to Work For list for a third year. 
<ul> 
 	<li>To ensure its efforts don’t falter, Dow built a scorecard for diversity and inclusion metrics, which provides transparency for how each segment of the company is progressing. A separate workforce dashboard for leaders gives them visibility into the diversity breakdown of their team.</li> 
 	<li>The company’s Peer Allies program randomly assigns participants a new peer/ally connection each month, encouraging them to meet for at least one 30-minute one-on-one conversation. So far, more than 1,400 people at all levels throughout the company (making up roughly 10% of the workforce) take part in it.</li> 
 	<li>“Dow is a wonderful company to work for,” said one employee. “The management does a wonderful job meeting you where you are in life and being flexible to allow employees to be productive all while managing their lives.”</li> 
</ul>

The corporations on our annual list of the world’s largest companies delivered a record $41 trillion in aggregate revenues.

At winning companies, 88% of employees would recommend their employer to friends and family.

GPTW World's Best 2023-Dow

GPTW Manufacturing Production Large 2023-Dow

Employees say: 
 
"The way the company is engaged in inclusion and diversity is going beyond words, straight into action. It is clear that Dow puts people first. One recent example is the new parental leave policy, offering the same time off to both parents, either birth or adopting parents, including same-sex parents."

The Fortune 500, in its 69th year in 2023, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

F500-2023-075-Dow

The Michigan-based chemical producer boasts close to 38,000 employees across 104 manufacturing sites in 31 countries. 
<ul> 
 	<li>Dow fell 11 spots on this year’s Fortune 500, with $56.9 billion in revenue in 2022, a 3.5% increase from 2021.</li> 
 	<li>In 2023, the multinational’s chairman and CEO, Jim Fitterling, said Dow expects to deliver $1 billion in cost savings by enhancing productivity.</li> 
</ul>

Just as it dominates our economy, Big Tech now dominates Fortune’s annual ranking of corporate reputation.

When it comes to supporting employees, flexibility, diversity, and a few extra paid days off go a long way.

100-Best-2022-Dow

Since 2017, Dow has seen its employee resource groups grow exponentially, jumping from 15% to 52% participation rate, including 98% of its people leaders. Last year it launched an “All In” strategy elevating its focus on gender parity in leadership positions and established a global minimum standard of 16 weeks of paid time off for all new parents. Dow also expanded family and caregiver leave policies to provide employees up to three weeks of paid time off to care for sick or injured family members. Some 86% of employees say that “management is honest and ethical in its business practices.”

Aggregate sales hit $37.8 trillion last year—an increase of 19%, the highest annual growth rate in the list’s history.

Employees say: 
 
“The people in Dow are second-to-none. Our team is comprised of the brightest, most motivated professionals in the world, and I believe every day our team members wake up motivated to truly make this a safer, more inclusive and more sustainable world. I've been a Dow employee for nearly 20 years, and I've never been more proud...nor more motivated...to work for this company.”

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 68th running of the list.

F500 2022-Dow Inc.

The multinational chemical manufacturer weathered supply-chain constraints and inflated raw-materials prices to deliver a very strong 2021. The company announced revenue of $55 billion in 2021, a 42.6% increase over 2020. Most of Dow’s growth came from its packaging and specialty plastics sales, as the company was able to take advantage of supply bottlenecks and maintain high prices for its products. In 2022, however, Dow is expected to face even higher raw-material and energy costs, as well as the ramifications of suspending its purchases of feedstocks and energy from Russia.

Our 2021 list of the 100 best companies to work for, as ranked by their employees. See which companies made the list.

100 Best Companies 2021-100-The-Dow-Chemical-Company

In the war on COVID-19, Dow supplied armaments to the front lines. The company’s plants—it has 109 manufacturing sites across 31 countries—churned out plastics and chemicals crucial in making personal protective equipment and virus-slaying sanitizers. After producing and donating 100,000 face shields to the state of Michigan, Dow made its designs publicly available for download. The company pumped out more than 880,000 eight-ounce bottles of hand sanitizer per week during the pandemic. Dow also designed, manufactured, and donated thousands of hospital gowns and air purifiers to hospitals, and, in recognition of its employees’ efforts, it awarded $1,000 bonuses to approximately 8,200 workers who kept the lights on at its U.S. factories. “Our leadership insured we helped the community with PPE,” one proud worker says.

Total revenue for the world’s biggest companies fell 4.8% to $31.7 trillion this year—the first decline in half a decade.

<span data-sheets-value="{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;The chemicals giant, which debuted as a stand-alone entity on the Fortune 500 last year, had a rocky 2020, sliding four spots on our list and sustaining a more than 10% hit to revenues as the pandemic initially slammed oil prices and demand for some of Dow’s products. The company cut capital spending by over $700 million from the year prior, but posted year-over-year revenue growth in the fourth quarter as demand recovered. Deadly winter storm Uri knocked Texas offline and temporarily halted Dow’s Gulf Coast operations in early 2021, but the firm still managed to report strong earnings to kick off the year. Now, the chemicals titan is facing a new dynamic: keeping up with rising demand for its products amid tight supply and low inventory. That all bodes well for Dow’s business, at least for now, as CEO Jim Fitterling recently predicted prices for the company’s products should remain elevated. &quot;}" data-sheets-userformat="{&quot;2&quot;:12673,&quot;3&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:0},&quot;10&quot;:2,&quot;11&quot;:4,&quot;15&quot;:&quot;Calibri, Arial&quot;,&quot;16&quot;:11}" data-sheets-textstyleruns="{&quot;1&quot;:0}{&quot;1&quot;:66,&quot;2&quot;:{&quot;6&quot;:1}}{&quot;1&quot;:73}">The chemicals giant had a rocky 2020, sustaining a more than 10% hit to revenues as the pandemic initially slammed oil prices and demand for some of Dow’s products. The company cut capital spending by over $700 million from the year prior, but posted year-over-year revenue growth in the fourth quarter as demand recovered. Deadly winter storm Uri knocked Texas offline and temporarily halted Dow’s Gulf Coast operations in early 2021, but the firm still managed to report strong earnings to kick off the year. Now, the chemicals titan is facing a new dynamic: keeping up with rising demand for its products amid tight supply and low inventory. That all bodes well for Dow’s business, at least for now, as CEO Jim Fitterling recently predicted prices for the company’s products should remain elevated.

Companies on this year's list—which span the electrical, automotive, and medical device industries—invest in and trust their employees.

Best-Workplaces-Large-Manufacturing-Production-2021-DOW

Employees say: 
 
“Regardless of degree, Dow provides an opportunity for a diverse career. If you are a hard worker, embrace challenges, and perform, you can have the ability to work in various roles throughout the company."

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 67th running of the list.

F500-2021-82-Dow-Inc

<span data-sheets-value="{&quot;1&quot;:2,&quot;2&quot;:&quot;The chemicals giant, which debuted as a stand-alone entity on the Fortune 500 last year, had a rocky 2020, sliding four spots on our list and sustaining a more than 10% hit to revenues as the pandemic initially slammed oil prices and demand for some of Dow’s products. The company cut capital spending by over $700 million from the year prior, but posted year-over-year revenue growth in the fourth quarter as demand recovered. Deadly winter storm Uri knocked Texas offline and temporarily halted Dow’s Gulf Coast operations in early 2021, but the firm still managed to report strong earnings to kick off the year. Now, the chemicals titan is facing a new dynamic: keeping up with rising demand for its products amid tight supply and low inventory. That all bodes well for Dow’s business, at least for now, as CEO Jim Fitterling recently predicted prices for the company’s products should remain elevated. &quot;}" data-sheets-userformat="{&quot;2&quot;:12673,&quot;3&quot;:{&quot;1&quot;:0},&quot;10&quot;:2,&quot;11&quot;:4,&quot;15&quot;:&quot;Calibri, Arial&quot;,&quot;16&quot;:11}" data-sheets-textstyleruns="{&quot;1&quot;:0}{&quot;1&quot;:66,&quot;2&quot;:{&quot;6&quot;:1}}{&quot;1&quot;:73}">The chemicals giant, which debuted as a stand-alone entity on the Fortune 500 last year, had a rocky 2020, sliding four spots on our list and sustaining a more than 10% hit to revenues as the pandemic initially slammed oil prices and demand for some of Dow’s products. The company cut capital spending by over $700 million from the year prior, but posted year-over-year revenue growth in the fourth quarter as demand recovered. Deadly winter storm Uri knocked Texas offline and temporarily halted Dow’s Gulf Coast operations in early 2021, but the firm still managed to report strong earnings to kick off the year. Now, the chemicals titan is facing a new dynamic: keeping up with rising demand for its products amid tight supply and low inventory. That all bodes well for Dow’s business, at least for now, as CEO Jim Fitterling recently predicted prices for the company’s products should remain elevated.

This year's Fortune Global 500 generated $33.3 trillion in revenues and $2.1 trillion in profits.

G500-2020-283-Dow

The new Dow came into being, at least officially, when behemoth DowDuPont split itself into three publicly traded entities last year. The now-independent chemicals giant posted $42.9 billion in annual revenue. Since striking out on its own, the company, headquartered in Midland, Mich., has taken steps to deleverage, paying down some $3 billion in debt last year. Still, it lost nearly $1.4 billion in 2019, a figure that includes one-time charges related to its spin off. In 2020 the chemicals space has been hit hard by factors related to plunging oil prices, prompting Dow to announce it would cut spending.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 66th running of the list.

F500-2020-078-Dow Inc

The new Dow came into being, at least officially, when behemoth DowDuPont split itself into three publicly-traded entities last year. And the now-independent chemicals giant has emerged at a relatively lofty spot on the Fortune 500 ranking, posting $42.9 billion in annual revenue. Since striking out on its own, the company, headquartered in Midland, Mich., has taken steps to deleverage, paying down some $3 billion in debt last year. Still, it lost nearly $1.4 billion in 2019, a figure that includes one-time charges related to its spin off. In 2020 the chemicals space has been hit hard by factors related to plunging oil prices, prompting Dow to announce it would cut spending.

Best Companies

Rank last year

Years on list

U.S. employees

U.S. job openings

Year founded

Benefits

Subsidized childcare

Compressed work weeks

Option to work remotely

Minimum requirement in-office attendance (days per week)

Mental health coverage

Free mental health sessions (per year)

Free backup childcare time off (days)

Maximum $ amount covered for fertility services

Fully paid maternal leave (days)

Fully paid paternal leave (days)

Fully paid adoptive leave (days)

Maternal leave in addition to regular time off (days)

Paid days off for volunteering

Best Workplaces In Manufacturing And Production

Founded

Industry Vertical

Sites

World's Best Workplaces

World's Best list history

Countries where the company was recognized on a GPTW national list

Best Companies To Work For Southeast Asia

Sector

Type of organization

CEO/Top executive

Group headquarters

HQ location

GPTW national list

Woman CEO

Industry

Current All-Star Rank

Previous All-Star Rank

Industry Rank

Previous Industry Rank

Overall Score

Innovation

People Management

Use of Corporate Assets

Social Responsibility

Quality of Management

Financial Soundness

Long-Term Investment Value

Quality of Products/Services

Global Competitiveness

Key Financials (last Fiscal Year)

Revenues ($M)

Profits ($M)

Assets ($M)

Total Stockholder Equity ($M)

Profit Ratios

Profit as % of Revenues

Profits as % of Assets

Profits as % of Stockholder Equity

Earnings Per Share (last Fiscal Year)

Earnings Per Share ($)

EPS % Change (from prior fiscal year)

EPS % Change (5 year annual rate)

EPS % Change (10 year annual rate)

Total Return

Total Return to Investors (last year)

Total Return to Investors (5 year, annualized)

Total Return to Investors (10 year, annualized)

Dow makes and sells materials science solutions for packaging, infrastructure, mobility, and consumer applications. It is among the world’s largest chemical and plastics producers. Dow’s roots go back to the 1890s. The company was created in its current form after chemical companies Dow and DuPont merged in the 2010s to form DowDuPont; in 2019, the materials science division of the company was spun off from that entity to create Dow Inc.

Q2 2026

Q1 2026

Q4 2025

Q3 2025

Q2 2025

Q1 2025

Q4 2024

Dow (DOW): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

legacy

Greetings, and welcome to the Dow second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I will now turn it over to Dow Investor Relations Vice President, Andrew Riker. Mr. Riker, you may begin.

Good morning. Thank you for joining today. The accompanying slides are provided through this webcast and posted on our website. I'm Andrew Riker, Dow's Investor Relations Vice President. Leading today's call are Karen S. Carter, Chief Executive Officer, and Jeff Tate, Chief Financial Officer. Please note, our comments contain forward-looking statements and are subject to the related cautionary statement contained in the earnings news release and slides. Please refer to our public filings for further information about principal risks and uncertainties. Unless otherwise specified, all financials, where applicable, exclude significant items. We will also refer to non-GAAP measures. A reconciliation of the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure and other associated disclosures are contained in the earnings news release that is posted on our website. On slide two is our agenda for today's call.

Karen will begin with an overview of the actions we are taking to create long-term value over the cycle, as well as details on our second quarter performance. Following that, Jeff will share more about each of our operating segments as well as our outlook for the third quarter. Karen will also share some timely updates about how we're advancing our priorities while also remaining focused on our actions to improve earnings and cash flow. Jeff will share some insights about our continued commitment to financial discipline and our balanced capital allocation approach. As always, we'll leave plenty of time for your questions at the end. With that, let me turn the call over to Karen.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us. As I assumed the role of CEO this month, I couldn't help but reflect on the many fundamentals that have made Dow successful throughout our nearly 130-year history, many of which are still true today. We have a strong portfolio, a world-scale global asset base, deep customer relationships, and exceptional talent. Before reviewing our near-term performance and outlook, I want to reiterate how we are using these strengths to continue building a more competitive company that consistently delivers long-term value. We have laid out our top priorities on slide three. We will stay focused on the areas we can control while acting decisively in response to those we cannot. This means we will set our sights on these key priorities, holding ourselves accountable to deliver on our commitments and ensuring we are consistently grounded and creating value.

First, we will drive focused growth and innovation in the high-value markets where Dow can win and create differentiated value with our customers. We will prioritize targeted innovation, technology, and commercial excellence to strengthen our competitive position, deepen customer relationships, and accelerate growth where we have the greatest opportunity to lead. Second, we're enhancing our portfolio competitiveness. This means operating with a best owner mindset across our portfolio, investing in leading businesses, technologies, and low-cost positions, while also taking action where we are no longer competitive. Third, we will continue to hold ourselves accountable for taking a balanced approach to capital allocation. This includes using consistent principles to strengthen our balance sheet, driving a focus on cash flow, and ensuring maximum financial flexibility. Jeff and I will share additional details later on today's call and in the coming months on each of these priorities.

First, let's turn to slide four. We delivered solid results in the second quarter. This reflects our industry leadership as we translated improved market fundamentals and disciplined execution into meaningful earnings growth, margin expansion, and cash generation. Net sales were $12.1 billion, reflecting a 20% increase versus the year ago period, and operating EBITDA was $2.3 billion. We demonstrated meaningful progress toward ensuring lasting competitiveness, delivering more than $300 million of benefits in the quarter through our targeted self-help actions. This includes, first and foremost, the completion of our $1 billion 2025 cost savings program. Additionally, Transform to Outperform is beginning to deliver meaningful impact, and we shut down our upstream siloxanes unit in Barry, United Kingdom. We also announced new product and innovation capabilities across our silicones franchise.

This allows us to capitalize on higher value downstream opportunities and grow in attractive end markets like consumer and mobility applications where Dow is providing a wide range of enhanced solutions. The key takeaway is this: Team Dow is executing with discipline. We are doing so in an uncertain environment and taking bold actions within our control to deliver lasting competitiveness for Dow and improve value creation. We advanced meaningful self-help actions, and we have a clear path to creating long-term value with greater earnings durability and stronger cash flow through the cycle. I will hand it over to Jeff to cover our operating segments and third quarter outlook.

Thank you. Good morning to everyone joining today. As Karen mentioned, before I get into segment results, Dow's second quarter earnings reflect pricing leadership, better integrated margins, improved cash flow, and the benefit of our self-help initiatives. This all showed up in the bottom line. As a result, we adjusted our expected performance-based compensation compared to recent years. Turning to our Packaging & Specialty Plastics segment on slide five. Net sales were $6.4 billion, up 27% versus the year ago period. Operating EBIT was approximately $1.3 billion, reflecting an increase over the same period last year. This was primarily driven by higher polyethylene pricing, which lifted local price by more than 40%. Benefits from these higher prices in the Packaging & Specialty Plastics business were seen broadly across all regions and all applications.

This more than offset lower polyethylene volumes, which declined in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and India, as well as Asia Pacific, while growing in the resilient Americas. The Hydrocarbons & Energy business reported higher net sales, driven by increased olefins pricing, which more than offset lower volumes from plant maintenance on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Importantly, while operating rates in the Hydrocarbons & Energy business declined to 84% because of planned maintenance activity, we also successfully restarted our lowest cost, most flexible European cracker, Terneuzen, to match market conditions and optimize margins. Turning to Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure on slide six, the segment delivered a strong year-over-year improvement in the second quarter. Net sales were up 14% versus the year ago period, driven by a 15% increase in local price. This reflects gains across both businesses in all regions.

Operating EBIT improved to $246 million, up from the same quarter last year, supported by higher margins, our self-help initiative, and lower plant maintenance activity. Polyurethanes & Construction Chemicals benefited from local price gains. Our Industrial Solutions business delivered improved sales, continuing to benefit from the startup of our alkoxylation growth investments, which serve attractive end markets such as home care, pharma, and energy. We also generated incremental earnings this quarter from the sale of non-core land in Taiwan, where we had previously shut down production. This action aligns directly to our efforts to actively optimize our portfolio with the best owner mindset. Moving to Performance Materials & Coatings on slide seven, the segment delivered solid top-line growth, with net sales up 11% versus the year ago period. This improvement was supported by increased volume and price.

Volume gains were led by continued growth in downstream silicones, as well as improvements in acrylic monomers and architectural coatings. In addition, the Consumer Solutions business benefited from gains in attractive end markets, including consumer, electronics, and home care applications. Operating EBIT was $133 million, which is down year-over-year. This is largely due to higher costs, including plant maintenance activity and the shutdown of our Barry siloxanes unit, which offset the price and volume gains, as well as our self-help actions. If you step back and look across the entire company, Dow continues to lead by remaining agile, staying close to our customers, and capitalizing on our competitive advantages regardless of external factors. Turning next to slide eight. I'll share some context around the regional and macroeconomic conditions that are most impactful to Dow. First, we are benefiting from some key market-driven tailwinds.

For example, packaging remains resilient globally, and data center demand is outpacing supply. In addition, our teams are winning even in areas where the market is still challenged and less constructive. For example, we are gaining market share through our silicones business with electronics for mobility applications, as adoption for EVs grows across both Europe and Asia. This is also true in our coatings business in North America, where we continue to earn a seat at the design table with customers serving high-value markets and applications. Looking around the globe, in the Americas, consumers have remained steady, economic activity is constructive, and spending has held up, even as the U.S. housing market is still soft under the weight of affordability concerns and high mortgage rates. In the Middle East, geopolitical tensions remain elevated, and logistics are still constrained.

In addition to this, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains below historical levels, continuing to disrupt global supply chains. The geopolitical impacts on energy and feedstocks continue to support higher risk premiums, and we're seeing renewed value placed on supply security, including both reliability and logistics. In Europe, deeper structural pressures like high operating and labor costs persist. With that, some constructive dynamics are beginning to emerge, including government support and trade protection measures. This includes recently announced support for EU anti-dumping and anti-subsidy actions. Each of which support a more balanced environment for European produced products, including polyols that have been impacted by anti-competitive imports. Across Asia Pacific, we continue to see mixed signals. Regional consumer demand remains soft with weakened retail sales in May, but industrial production and manufacturing activity have recently accelerated.

In the energy space, refinery operations are normalizing in China, improving energy availability across the region. Globally, a supportive but higher cost feedstock environment paired with resilient but uneven demand, leads us to expect a more measured but still solid third quarter. Let's look at the specifics on slide nine. Given the uncertainty across so many of our markets today, especially with the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, projecting the quarter ahead is difficult. If we become aware of any meaningful changes as the quarter unfolds, we will provide timely updates as appropriate and as you've come to expect from us. Our expectation for third quarter EBITDA is approximately $1.7 billion. This sequential decline accounts for anticipated margin compression from the recent North American polyethylene price settlement in June, as well as the normal patterns that typically follow high seasonal demand in the second quarter.

We expect $130 million in sequential tailwinds from our self-help efforts, including Transform to Outperform and the initial uplift from our Barry shutdown. These benefits across the enterprise will more than offset headwinds associated with plant maintenance and non-repeating benefit of a land sale in the second quarter. Turning to our operating segments. In Packaging & Specialty Plastics, we expect the averaging effect of the June price decline to work its way through the third quarter, but are not assuming any further price movement. On top of that, we expect the benefits from Transform to Outperform to more than offset higher plant maintenance activity, mostly at our U.S. Gulf Coast assets. For Industrial Intermediates & Infrastructure, we expect to see normal seasonal declines in building and construction, along with some expected margin pressure in Europe. With that, our continued implementation of self-help actions should provide a partial offset.

In Performance Materials & Coatings, we anticipate that declines will be driven by typical seasonal slowdown in coatings demand, as well as a planned PO/PG turnaround in the quarter. Self-help actions, including the benefit from the Barry shutdown, are expected to help offset some of the pressure in the quarter. Overall, Dow's third quarter outlook demonstrates that even as we navigate a dynamic macro environment, our disciplined execution continues to build, supporting improved earnings over time. With that, I will turn the call back over to Karen to share some details about each of our near-term priorities, which aim to ensure long-term value creation.

Thank you, Jeff. As I outlined at the top of the call, our priorities are helping to enable a stronger and more resilient Dow with an enhanced ability to outperform across market cycles. Slide 10 outlines our first priority, focused growth and innovation, where we will prioritize our resources in attractive end markets and win with our customers. For example, rapid data center growth is creating new demand for solutions that address thermal management, water usage, energy demand, and noise abatement needs. Dow is partnering with hyperscalers and leaders in this industry, leveraging our closed-loop liquid cooling solutions, advanced thermal fluids, carbon mitigation technologies, and acoustic materials. Last quarter, we launched the Dow Coolant Care Network, expanding our offering to support this fast-growing market. Our new integrated service model helps customers improve cooling system reliability, reduce operational risk, and maximize uptime, all of which are critical to data center growth.

Separately, we progressed long-term agreements with both P&G and Univar, locking in durable, high-quality demand for low carbon products across key markets like beauty and personal care, home care, food, pharmaceutical, and a variety of industrial performance markets. This is another example of how we are translating innovation into commercial value while securing growth in attractive end markets. Lastly, in the second quarter, we announced that we are expanding our product and innovation capabilities in specialty silicones that allow us to meet growing global demand in mobility, electronics, and healthcare applications. By expanding these capabilities, we are better able to meet increasing consumer demand, strengthen our global supply chain capabilities, and enable customers to move faster from innovation to commercialization. Next on slide 11, our second priority focuses on enhancing the competitiveness of our portfolio.

To start, aligned to our previously announced European asset actions, we shut down our upstream higher cost siloxanes unit in Barry, United Kingdom. As a reminder, this represents approximately 25% of European siloxane industry capacity. Doing this further reshapes our Performance Materials & Coatings portfolio. It increases our focus on downstream differentiated product offerings, while importantly maintaining integration in our silicones value chain. We expect this action to deliver $60 million of EBITDA uplift in the second half of this year. Additionally, in our Packaging & Specialty Plastics operating segment, we restarted our lowest cost and most flexible European cracker, Terneuzen in the Netherlands, that has been idled since mid-2025. Relatedly, the shutdown of our Böhlen cracker remains on track for completion in 2027. At the same time, the Alberta project is progressing as planned, where our focus remains on disciplined completion and maximizing returns.

Taken all together, these actions will further improve our position on the cost curve while maintaining important flexibility across our global asset base. Next, I'll turn the call back over to Jeff to share some details on our third priority, balanced capital allocation, and how strengthening our financial position remains a critical priority for Dow's management team now and well into the future.

Thank you, Karen. On slide 12, our approach to financial discipline is consistent, and our outlook for the year puts us in a stronger position than when we entered 2026. We continue to take actions that enhance Dow's balance sheet and financial performance. This includes meaningful improvement in our leverage metrics and overall credit profile. In addition, we are maintaining approximately $14 billion of total available liquidity, giving us the flexibility to invest through the cycle while protecting our balance sheet. Importantly, our approach to balanced capital allocation remains consistent with the framework we've shared over the last several years. With improved earnings and cash conversion, we will prioritize any excess cash towards deleveraging. In addition to that, we have no substantive debt maturities due until 2029, and we recently extended our revolving credit facility out to 2031.

Throughout this year, we will also continue to implement smart trade-off decisions to improve working capital. We currently expect a minimum release of more than $500 million in the second half of the year. Furthermore, on the cash front, we received approximately $1 billion in compensation from the NOVA litigation in the first quarter and the remaining approximately $300 million early in the third quarter. We also continue to make progress with our partner, Aramco, related to Sadara, all aimed at ensuring long-term success that optimizes each shareholder's value. Before I turn the call back to Karen, I want to reiterate that each of the three priorities she and I covered over the past several minutes outline a clear path to enhance competitiveness. We'll get there through focused growth and innovation and decisive portfolio execution. Our commitment to a balanced capital allocation approach remains consistent.

Next, Karen will share more about how our near-term self-help actions are underpinning each of these priorities.

Turning to slide 13. The actions outlined here demonstrate the tangible progress we are making against our self-help commitments, which we expect will generate a total of more than $1.3 billion in benefits this year, reflecting an increase of $200 million from our prior target. First, we have materially completed the remaining cost savings associated with the $1 billion program that we announced in January 2025. In addition, we continue to execute several strategic moves that will uniquely position Dow to win, including capitalizing on our recently completed incremental growth investments and advancing our previously announced European asset shutdowns, as I mentioned earlier on the call. Moving to Transform to Outperform, we expect this work will deliver an upsized benefit of approximately $700 million this year, clearly demonstrating the early value we are capturing.

Importantly, we remain confident in the $2 billion total opportunity that these efforts will deliver by the end of next year. We are seeing significant early results from the productivity work aligned to Transform to Outperform, which as a reminder, represents two-thirds of the total expected benefit. For example, we have implemented approximately 55% of the total Dow role reductions, which are expected to contribute more than $200 million of EBITDA uplift in the second half of this year. Additionally, we have completed our site transformation playbook at six of our largest sites, which is expected to deliver approximately $50 million alone in the second half of this year. The actions we are taking include improving production yields, driving maintenance productivity and energy efficiency, and optimizing third-party spending.

On the growth side, which represents one-third of the expected benefits from Transform to Outperform, we are seeing initial results from accelerated commercial and market-focused strategies. Targeted growth platforms delivered increased profitability during the quarter, supported by strategic opportunity management, strong commercial execution, and the deployment of digital pricing and demand planning capabilities. We remain encouraged by these early wins and the value they are generating for Dow. These examples give us confidence in the magnitude of the opportunities and in our ability to deliver against them. I'll close on slide 14, which highlights what this quarter really demonstrates about Dow. This is a dynamic period. The geopolitical and macro backdrops remain volatile and demand signals are mixed. We are not waiting for conditions to turn in our favor.

We are leading with deliberate actions and controlling what we can control, that rigor is clear in our second quarter results. Our self-help is delivering. Teams across the company are redesigning how work gets done, modernizing how we serve our customers, and improving decision-making to drive both growth and productivity. This mindset will guide where we go from here, and it comes down to the three priorities we outlined today. On focused growth and innovation, we are putting our capital and our talent behind attractive end markets where we can win with our customers. We are driving actions across our global portfolio to strengthen Dow's world-scale, low-cost footprint in every region and across each of our operating segments. Lastly, we are enhancing our balance sheet and financial flexibility.

This includes a consistent and unwavering approach to balanced capital allocation, while also maintaining ample liquidity and prioritizing deleveraging with any excess cash. Taken together, these priorities are designed to enhance Dow's lasting competitive advantages. Importantly, our self-help is not simply a one-time event. It is a mindset and a discipline, fundamentally resetting how we run our company, how we serve our customers, and how we deliver lasting value. This discipline, combined with the strength of our portfolio and our people, is exactly why Dow is a compelling investment opportunity. Now, I'll turn the call back to Andrew to get us started with the Q&A.

Thank you, Karen. Now let's move on to your questions. I would like to remind you that our forward-looking statements apply to both our prepared remarks and the following Q&A. Operator, please provide the Q&A instructions.

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin our Q&A session. If you have dialed in and would like to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star one again. We kindly ask everyone limits themselves to one question. Your first question comes from Hassan Ahmed with Alembic Global.

Morning, Karen and Jeff. Look, a two-part question, primarily on polyethylene. The first part of it is that, you guys obviously talked about flat polyethylene pricing for your Q3 guidance. The first part of the question is, how are you sort of factoring in the recent rally that we've seen in crude oil prices and obviously the continued sort of blockage of the Strait of Hormuz and the like, how that factors into the pricing assumption. The second part, just around inventories. A lot of the energy industry executives are talking about sort of energy inventories being at critical levels. As I take a look at China, it seems China, through Q2 at least, produced less, call it polyethylene and other commodity chemical products, yet exported more. It means, at least to me, that there's been a fairly substantial destock over there.

How should that be factored in? Could we expect maybe potentially a restock going forward?

Thank you for your question. Just a couple of things on that. Let's start with kind of a guide and what we have in the guide, then I'll talk about where we go from here in terms of the current conditions. We tried to take a pretty balanced view on the $1.7 billion guide. Just to be clear, what's in that in relation to polyethylene margins, that guide assumes $0.10 per pound decline in global integrated margins compared to the second quarter. What that includes is the $0.15 down June settlement, then that works its way through the third quarter. As Jeff articulated earlier on the call, that also assumes no additional quarterly price movement. To your point, a lot of things have changed.

If you look at this week, oil is up $10 just the beginning of the week to now. Key feedstocks are also on the rise, polyethylene prices are also up, particularly in China. You mentioned this, their inventories are declining, that is reflected also in our order books. Just the last few days, we've really seen an increase in our order loading. When we saw those market dynamics changing, we announced our $0.05 per pound in North America. If you look at the oil dynamics from now, the Strait of Hormuz basically being blocked again, we saw yesterday the attack in the Red Sea. Those dynamics plus resilient demand and polyethylene and all the other things I've mentioned really do set the ground for our price increases going up from here.

If they do occur, that would be an upside to the $1.7 billion guide. What I would say is that things continue to be volatile. We're going to work on maximizing the quarter as we always do, if things change materially, we'll be sure to come back to you and update you on that.

Your next question comes from Vincent Andrews with Morgan Stanley.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. Karen, thank you for the capital allocation discussion. Just wanted to follow up a little bit on that, particularly as it relates to Alberta. Do you have any just sort of high-level update on that project's progression? Secondarily, given obviously there's been a change in the global landscape and clearly North America is more attractive today. It was always attractive, but it's probably more attractive today than it was prior to the conflict. Is there any incremental opportunity to bring a partner in on that project or to do anything creative with it?

Our focus right now on Alberta is really disciplined execution and finishing the project, also maintaining our accountability on the returns that we've committed to. Where we sit today is that about 60% of the CapEx has been spent. The project is progressing as planned. We have about 40% left to spend. Most of that is on labor. The other thing I would just reiterate is that the incentives remain intact, and most of the critical labor contracts have been awarded. Again, we're squarely focused on getting that project over the goal line. We've looked at potential partners before. I think we talked about it on this call, and we remain open to that. They must be financially accretive and meet our return threshold.

In summary, what we're really focused on now is getting the project over the goal line, of course, safely, but also on the revised timeline, so that we can get both the growth and the returns on that investment.

Your next question comes from Frank Mitsch with Fermium Research.

Good morning, congrats on posting $2+ billion. I'm a little bit puzzled with respect to P&SP. When you offered the guide back on April 23rd, you offered $1.75 billion EBITDA. Jeff gave an update in raising the total EBITDA from $2 billion to $2.2 billion, I assume that that increased the P&SP. Can you talk about why P&SP came in below the expectations that you had laid out back in April and then upgraded back in June?

I'll make a couple of comments, then Jeff, if you have something else that you want to add here. There's a couple of things. First, the $0.15 price decline in June was not incorporated into the numbers that Jeff was talking about, particularly on second quarter, also going into the third quarter. The other thing is that we not only had some planned maintenance, we also had a couple of UPEs that impacted the actual numbers in the second quarter. Jeff, anything else you want to add to that?

The only thing I would add, and good morning, Frank, is that you're spot on in terms of P&SP, the offset that we saw occurred in II&I that brought us in pretty close to our overall updated guide number that I updated in June, where we saw margin increases there due to some of the supply disruptions that occurred, as well as some of the feedstock constraints. We also had a land sale that I mentioned in my prepared remarks in second quarter that was approximately $50 million. With the lower than expected on P&SP, which was offset by the better than expected II&I, we still came in very close to the updated guide number that we have for second quarter.

Just maybe one other thing before we go to the next question I think it's important to mention is also that our self-help continues to over-deliver. If you look through the first half, we committed to $100 million. We've delivered $190 million, that's why we're really confident in upsizing, particularly the Transform to Outperform portion of our self-help actions, which, as we articulated before, will now deliver $700 million versus the $500 million guide. That's the other thing, Jeff, that I would just mention that's helping us to not only achieve in the second quarter, will also help to maximize EBITDA for the rest of the year.

Dow (DOW) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

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