Jim Fitterling, Dow’s chairman and chief executive officer, commented on the quarter:
“Recognizing the significant impact that COVID-19 would have on demand in the quarter, Dow took proactive actions to electively focus on cash and maintain our financial strength with a continued emphasis on safe, reliable operations and disciplined capital allocation. As a result, Dow once again generated higher cash flow in the quarter. We captured solid demand growth in packaging, health and hygiene, home care and pharma end-markets, which partially offset weakness in consumer durable goods. Extended economic lockdowns shifted the inflection point for demand recovery in key markets and geographies into June, where we began to see gradual improvements across most industries. The growing recovery in China and early signs of improvement in Western Europe are positive indicators for the United States and Latin America.
“Our proactive cost and cash interventions enabled us to continue to maximize our financial flexibility through the pandemic. We delivered another quarter of improved year-over-year cash flow from operations as we have every quarter since spin. We maintained our liquidity position, further reduced our net debt, and we progressed our strategic priorities by announcing an agreement to divest certain rail infrastructure assets. And importantly, we continued to stay close to our customers, providing new channels to access our solutions, such as our new MobilityScience™ platform for the transportation industry, and implementing enhanced supply chain visibility for them as we managed through this historic period.”
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