Asset sales and layoffs continue among three chemical industry giants! Recently, these major companies have announced significant asset divestments and workforce reductions. If all transactions and plans are executed, they could collectively generate approximately 11 billion yuan in substantial proceeds while affecting 2,000 employees.

**Dow Chemical**

On September 2, Dow announced it had sold partial stakes in its infrastructure joint venture to partner Macquarie Asset Management for $540 million. The company is currently focusing on further developing its core business operations. Shortly before this announcement, Dow had already declared its exit from another joint venture, DowAksa, abandoning its carbon fiber business.

This transaction represents another step in Dow's ongoing evaluation of non-production asset ownership within its global portfolio. It follows Dow's sale of a 40% stake in some of its U.S. Gulf Coast infrastructure assets to Macquarie at the end of 2024, which was part of a previously agreed arrangement. This move will increase Macquarie's ownership in the Diamond Infrastructure Solutions joint venture to 49%, raising Dow's total proceeds from these transactions from $2.4 billion to approximately $3.0 billion.

Dow will not completely withdraw from this business, maintaining controlling interest in Diamond Infrastructure Solutions to ensure continuity of safe and reliable operations.

From a business perspective, Dow operates three main business segments, primarily involving ethylene and ethylene downstream products, epoxy resins, polyurethanes, acrylic acids and esters, and organosilicon product chains.

Diamond Infrastructure Solutions serves as the infrastructure supplier for Dow and its five facilities in Texas and Louisiana, comprising certain non-production assets (power and steam generation, pipelines, environmental operations, and general site infrastructure) at Dow's five manufacturing bases along the U.S. Gulf Coast: Freeport, Texas City, and Seadrift in Texas, and Plaquemine and St. Charles in Louisiana. Pipeline and storage assets span across the U.S. Gulf Coast, connecting to major natural gas, NGL, and olefin hubs.

**OMV**

On September 4, Austrian newspaper Kurier reported that Austrian oil, gas, and chemical group OMV plans to reduce 2,000 positions from its global workforce of 23,000 employees. According to union sources cited by the publication, the company's Romanian subsidiary Petrom will be particularly severely affected, with layoffs also planned at refineries in southern Germany and Slovakia.

The report indicated that approximately 400 of the company's 5,400 positions in Austria will be eliminated, with the company planning to be "as socially conscious as possible" during the layoff process. However, the business consolidation plans for OMV's chemical subsidiary Borealis will not be affected.

On March 4, 2025, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and OMV reached a binding framework agreement for the proposed equity merger of Borouge and Borealis. The latter two are expected to merge in the first quarter of 2026 to form Borouge Group International, while also acquiring Nova Chemicals, creating a new polyolefin leader worth over $60 billion and ranking fourth globally. This will further expand its business footprint in North America. Currently, Borealis has become a top-ten global polyolefin producer and a leader in Europe's basic chemicals and plastic recycling sectors.

**Exxon Mobil**

On September 4, the Financial Times reported, citing informed sources, that Exxon Mobil is seeking to sell its European chemical plants in the UK and Belgium, as the industry faces pressure from U.S. tariffs and competition from China. The sale could amount to up to $1 billion.

Exxon Mobil did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The European chemical industry is facing new pressures as U.S. tariffs disrupt global trade, causing order delays and intensifying competition from cheap Asian imports, threatening the sector's recovery while still dealing with the effects of the 2022 energy crisis.

Exxon Mobil operates an ethylene plant in Fife, Scotland, and multiple production facilities in Belgium. Reports indicate the company has also discussed directly closing these facilities. These reports remain inconclusive, and Exxon Mobil may choose to retain these assets.

Notably, in May this year, Exxon Mobil entered exclusive negotiations with North Atlantic Energy Group's French subsidiary regarding the divestment of its majority-owned French subsidiary Esso. However, given the current trend of industrial hollowing-out in Europe, Exxon Mobil's continued "retreat" would not be surprising.

According to incomplete statistics, since 2023, giants including BASF, Dow, Evonik, Huntsman, Celanese, INEOS, Covestro, SABIC, LyondellBasell, Exxon Mobil, AkzoNobel, Shell, and TotalEnergies have been gradually "withdrawing" from Europe.