Hemlock parent loses $500M through Clarksville plant closure

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – The loss of Hemlock Semiconductor of Clarksville, monetarily speaking, represents a sizable chunk of the budget for its corporate parent — yet corporate officers say 2014 was a good year overall on the balance sheet.

Midland, Mich.-based Dow Chemical Co., in its fourth-quarter and full-year financial results, has reported a $500 million corporate loss related to Dow Corning’s permanent abandonment of the Hemlock polycrystalline silicon manufacturing plant in Clarksville.

Even with that half-billion-dollar loss, Andrew N. Liveris, Dow’s chairman and chief executive officer, said Dow “achieved a record end to a strong year” overall.

Corporate sales were $58.2 billion, up 2 percent versus the prior year, with increases reported in all geographic areas.

Sales grew in North America, the corporation said, with revenue in the United States up 4 percent due to “sales growth across all operating segments.”

The company says it delivered $6.5 billion of cash flow from operations in 2014, demonstrating Dow’s “continued focus on productivity,” and representing a second consecutive year of record cash flow.

The Dow Chemical Co. reported adjusted earnings per share of 85 cents, up from 65 cents per share in the year-ago period.

Meanwhile Dow reported sales of $14.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014, relatively flat versus the same quarter in the previous year.