Union Carbide Corporation | Introduction
Introduction
Union Carbide Corporation
400 West Sam Houston Parkway South
Houston, Texas 77042
U.S.A.
Telephone: (713) 798-2016
Fax: (713) 978-2394
Web site: http://www.unioncarbide.com
Wholly Owned Subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company
Incorporated: 1917 as Union Carbide & Carbon
Corporation
Employees: 3,800
Sales: $5.86 billion (2004)
NAIC: 3251 Basic Chemical Manufacturing
Union Carbide Corporation is the world's largest producer of ethylene glycol, commonly used as antifreeze, and is a leading manufacturer of the world's most widely used plastic, polyethylene. In spite of a disaster at its Bhopal, India, pesticide plant in 1984 that resulted in numerous deaths and serious health problems for people living in the region, as well as a devastating takeover attempt that followed, the corporation remained one of top 20 exporters in the United States in the early 1990s. Union Carbide pioneered the petrochemicals industry and introduced the first two modern plastics. The company became known as "chemist to the chemical industry and metal-lurgist to the metals industry" because of its production of many of the building blocks of those two industries.