Dow Inc. is a chemicals manufacturer producing plastics, industrial chemicals and materials used across packaging, construction, consumer products and other industrial applications, spun off as an independent public company from the previous DowDuPont conglomerate. Its products range from basic commodity chemicals and plastics used in everyday packaging to more specialized materials used in construction, automotive and industrial applications. As a commodity chemicals producer, Dow's profitability is closely tied to chemical and plastics pricing cycles, which fluctuate based on global manufacturing capacity, feedstock costs like natural gas and oil, and overall industrial demand. The company's results tend to be cyclical, benefiting from periods of tight chemical supply relative to demand and facing margin pressure during periods when new manufacturing capacity comes online faster than demand grows.