Pump Failure in Dow''s Freeport, Texas Plant

Zacks Equity Research reports that Dow Chemical suffered a pump failure in a light hydrocarbon plant in Freeport, Texas. However, the incident did not affect the downstream business and no injuries were reported. Dow’s Light Hydrocarbon 7 plant had an upset in the internal hydrogen supply to the acetylene reactors that caused flaring of offspec ethylene. Hydrogen supply was re-established as quickly as possible to bring the ethylene product back on spec. Recently, Dow reported its first quarter of 2011 results. The company earned $0.82 per share in the first quarter of 2011, ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.67 per share as well as last year’s $0.43 per share. However, including one-time charges, the company earned $0.54 per share compared with $0.41 per share in the year-ago quarter.