The Argentine unit of Dow Chemical Co. (DOW) wishes to double its production of polyethylene at an investment outlay of US$400 million through 2009. However, the expansion plans seem to be stalled due to unavailability of sufficient gas supply. Dow can invest between US$70-90 million with the gas supply currently available.
Argentina's economic crisis in 2001-2002, which brought on the devaluation of the local currency, prompted the Argentine government to convert all rates for public services from dollars to pesos and freeze them. The rate freeze has squeezed companies' abilities to invest in their production-capacity increase.
This problem is predominantly felt in the energy sector, whose bottlenecks threaten the rest of the economy as the country is running its fourth consecutive year of more than 8% annual growth
03-Jan-07 
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