Nuremerg, Germany - March 31, 2009

Dow Coating Solutions, a market facing business of The Dow Chemical Company ("Dow"), is showcasing a range of industry innovations introduced in the past year at the European Coating Show in Nuremberg, Germany, March 31 - April 2, 2009.

Dow Coating Solutions was created to provide customers easier access to the chemistries and expertise they need to continually drive innovation in the coating industry.  While market and business conditions have changed considerably in the past year, we remain committed to that objective

Technology-Driven Solutions to Advance Coatings Performance

Dow has created a name with its innovative coatings technologies across diverse industrial segments and markets, from building and construction to marine, automotive, protective packaging, pipe and general metal.  Given the specific needs of these markets, Dow has recognized the importance of cooperation, collaboration and customer-driven solutions. By offering both depth and breadth across its coatings offerings, Dow demonstrates its ongoing commitment to the industry.

Dow will showcase its experience and technical expertise at the European Coating Show Congress with a number of presentations that will feature a range of high-performance, innovative and cost-effective products and services which highlight the Company's role - and responsibility - as both a leader and willing partner in the industry.  Those presentations include:

Solutions to Formulating Low VOC Water based Gloss Trim Paints using Binders with Structured Particle Morphology

A Newly-introduced, Low Odor, Amino Alcohol that Helps Enable Architectural Paint Producers to meet 2010 VOC Requirements

Next generation environmentally friendly surfactants for architectural paint applications

Self-healing Coatings- New Technology Developments

Accelerated aging of thermoset coatings below the glass transition temperature of the polymer

Chemorheology of low application temperature coatings

Unique Properties & Performance Attributes of NOP PUDs in Architectural Wood Coatings

"We have a long history of providing high-performance solutions, and the number of innovative materials derived from utilizing proprietary Dow technology, are examples of Dow Coating Solutions drive to help customers enhance key product performance attributes while reducing environmental impact" said Carlo Spaniol, Global Marketing Director, Dow Coating Solutions.

Since its inception, Dow Coating Solutions has focused on four key innovation themes: improving environmental durability, reducing the environmental impact of coatings, reducing lifecycle and processing costs and advancing smart coatings research. At the European Coating Show, the company is showcasing advances in each of these areas through new products, business initiatives and ongoing research.

Improving environmental durability:
The company has made several significant announcements related to improving environmental durability, including:

• Dow Coating Solutions recently introduced D.E.R.™ 6508 solid epoxy resins, used in coatings for pipelines operating at high, temperatures (up to 140 degrees Celsius) to guard against corrosion.

Reducing the environmental impact of coatings
In the past year, Dow Coating Solutions has introduced a wide range of products and processes that can help formulators reduce the environmental impact of coatings, including:

• ECOSURF™ SA Surfactants, a new generation of patented, biodegradable, nonionic surfactants that meet most environmental and handling safety standards world-wide, while offering excellent performance and economics.
• ECOSURF™ EH surfactants are a new line of specialty surfactants designed to help customers meet rising expectations for performance and convenience while complying with more stringent environmental expectations and safety regulations.
• BLUEWAVE™ Technology, a new process that allows for the production of waterborne dispersions from multiple families of chemistry.
• RENUVA™ Renewable Resource Technology, a new process under development that enables the use of natural oil-based polyols for products with high levels of renewable content as well as excellent coatings performance.

Reducing Application and Lifecycle Costs
Recent innovations in reducing application steps and lifecycle costs include the introduction of FORTEGRA™ Epoxy Tougheners, new low viscosity materials for use in amine, DICY, anhydride and phenolic cured epoxy systems that minimize the need for costly additives such as carboxyl terminated butadiene-acrylonitrile and aliphatic modifiers.

Smart Coating Research
The company is also dedicated to developing innovative smart coating technologies that offer unique and tailorable benefits in many different coatings. Work at the company's new coatings R&D labs in Shanghai and Midland, Mich. focus on areas such as self-healing, self-cleaning and antimicrobial coatings, while continuing to advance technologies across all of the Dow Coating Solutions innovation themes.

"It has been an exciting year, during which we have made several significant advances in all of the innovation focus areas we've identified.  "We're also continuing to build upon our High Throughput Research coatings capability in order to accelerate the development of novel and differentiated solutions to help our customers succeed in this competitive market" explained Rodolfo Bayona, Global R&D Director for Industrial Coatings. "At the European Coating Show, we will be meeting with customers and listening to their input so that we can continue to innovate and develop new solutions that help meet the needs of the market today and for years to come."

To learn more, visit www.DowCoatingSolutions.com 

About Dow Coating Solutions
Dow Coating Solutions is a market-facing business unit of The Dow Chemical Company that focuses on the needs of coatings formulators and the coatings market. The business relies on many of Dow's valuable assets, including multiple product chemistries, a highly-trained coatings R&D staff and an unparalleled global supply infrastructure, to offer product-agnostic solutions to coatings formulators worldwide.  For additional information, visit www.DowCoatingSolutions.com.

About Dow

For Editorial Information:

Kim Crawley
Gibbs & Soell GmbH
+41 44 205 55 65
kcrawley@gibbs-soell.com

Kate Nigro
The Dow Chemical Company
+1 9896389629
KNigro@dow.com