Dow to cut 4,500 positions in new restructuring

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Continuing to battle against a hostile market environment, Dow says it plans to cut 4,500 jobs—13% of its workforce—as part of a $2 billion streamlining program that will incorporate artificial intelligence. The company is still moving forward with its low-carbon ethylene cracker project in Canada after a delay.

The largest US chemical maker announced the measures along with its earnings for 2025. Dow’s sales for the year fell 7.0%, to $40 billion, and it posted a loss of $657 million excluding significant items, against a $1.2 billion profit in 2024. Business conditions were inhospitable to the company, which experienced flat sales and lower prices across its businesses.

“In the face of external pressures, we managed what was within our control,” Dow CEO Jim Fitterling said on a Jan. 29 conference call with analysts.

The streamlining program, which Dow is calling Transform to Outperform, is meant to lift the firm’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) by at least $2 billion annually by the end of 2028. Dow says it will reach two-thirds of that mark through productivity improvements; the balance will come from finding new ways to increase sales. The company anticipates $600 million to $800 million in severance costs as well as $500 million to $700 million in other one-time expenses.

The job and spending cuts are in addition to ones the company announced a year ago that were to eliminate 1,500 jobs and save $1 billion. Dow says that it has “materially completed” the job reductions in that program and that about $500 million in savings remain to be implemented this year.

“Transform to Outperform builds upon the self-help actions that we have implemented over the past few years. But importantly, it goes a lot further, representing a structural reengineering of our operating model and cost base,” Dow’s chief operating officer, Karen S. Carter, said on the call.

Dow says that at least some of the gains will come from AI. For instance, a slide presented during the call says the company will “streamline end-to-end work processes, leveraging automation and AI in areas like maintenance, production, and fulfillment to enhance speed and efficiency.”

When pressed by an analyst on the role AI would play in the cost reductions, Fitterling said, “We’re seeing progress in many functions right now. Many different functions are using AI in ways that are speeding things up or reducing the cost.” For example, he said the company’s legal department is using AI to research patents and prepare for cases. And Fitterling said he expects the company will eventually use “AI and robotics together.”

Dow also announced that it is moving forward with plans to build a low-carbon ethylene cracker in Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, that will use hydrogen to fuel its furnaces. The company will generate the hydrogen from cracker off-gases and capture and store carbon dioxide emissions.

Last year, the company delayed the project as it reassessed the timing amid a protracted global downturn in the petrochemical industry. The $6.5 billion project will come online in 2029, rather than 2027 as originally planned.

“We remain committed to the strategic rationale of the project and the upside that it will enable,” said Fitterling.