Research Triangle Park, North Carolina – April 24, 2007 – Dow Reichhold Specialty Latex has accelerated a plan to fully evaluate its options for establishing manufacturing in the Asia-Pacific region for the company’s line of industry-leading synthetic polymers used in glove manufacturing. The evaluation will focus on identifying a comprehensive plan to continue a high level of support for the company’s customers in the region.

“This evaluation is the next step in our continuing investment in the global glove industry,” said Jeffrey Welker, president of Dow Reichhold. We have been successful in reaching significant milestones in our long-term plan, including adding manufacturing capacity in North America, optimizing our manufacturing process and adding more people and facilities for customer support in the Asia-Pacific region, including China. We are also on track to make significant new product introductions in the near future to meet customer needs in specific market segments. This evaluation step has been in our plan, but we have recently made a decision to accelerate the process,” Welker concluded.

According to Robert Ewing, global marketing manager for gloves, the company has announced an aggressive plan for introduction of new polymer products for the fastest-growing applications.

“We are in the early stage of commercialization of DR 3988 Latex, offering performance enhancements for thin-film medical glove applications,” said Ewing. Additionally, we are well into the development and qualification process for up to three more new polymers that will help our customers compete in their most important applications,” Ewing noted.

The company also reports positive signs of change in the overall economics of the glove industry that have been taken into account as they accelerate the evaluation process.

“Margin improvement is a key indicator for us, and we are cautiously optimistic that the industry is headed in the right direction,” said Dave Gartshore, global vice president for sales for the company. More improvement is necessary, but in general our customers understand the long-term importance of overall industry profitability and have been supportive.”

Dow Reichhold Specialty Latex and its parent company Reichhold have been part of the glove industry since the 1960’s. The company developed the nitrile latex technology that has become the synthetic latex of choice for glove manufacturing. Dow Reichhold Specialty Latex LLC is a 50/50 joint venture of The Dow Chemical Company and Reichhold Inc. The joint venture is the world’s largest producer of specialty latex. The company is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, U.S.A.

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