It can go into high-rise buildings, it can go into new airports, it can go into schools and all kinds of other construction. Those are big volume pools. I think as you start to see construction activity pick up, then you’re going to see that ramp. We’re seeing strong demand in areas, obviously, EVs were a big part of it, 5G and connectivity is a big part of it, data centers. So as you’re looking at things like how to handle cooling on data centers, silicon fluids or dielectrics and some immersive cooling applications in data centers, which are big energy hogs and need energy efficiency, that’s a growth area for us as well. And then, the normal downstream demand in consumer goods and beauty care products continues to be good. So, I’m optimistic.
Maybe it may take more into late ’24 and into ’25 to see it, but I do feel like we’re going to start to move toward mid-cycle in 2025.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Arun Viswanathan from RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.
Arun Viswanathan: Great. Thanks for taking my question. So that’s a good segue actually to what I was thinking but it was — if you think about the guidance that you’re issuing here for Q1, it looks to be in the $1.3 billion or so level for EBITDA, give or take a little bit. But annualizing that will get you to $5.2 billion and then maybe add in a little bit for seasonality, it gets you to closer to $6 billion. Would you consider that kind of trough-like conditions? And as you move through the year in ’24, what are some of the things that makes you excited that we could maybe achieve mid-cycle by — when you’re exiting the year? And I guess maybe if you can just comment on what your expectations are for China growth going forward? Obviously, we’ll likely see maybe a slower growth environment for the next four or five years versus the last four or five years. Just wanted to get your thoughts on that as well. Thanks.
Jim Fitterling: Yeah. I think the things that are constructed to me as we’re moving forward is no new capacity coming in, in Packaging & Specialty Plastics. You’ve got high operating rates in all the cost advantaged regions of the world. And you’ve got export arbitrage window open to China, as I mentioned, double-digit growth for us in China. And I think our view is we’re able to move — continue to move products. India has been strong. So, we’re moving product into India. Mexico has been really strong. We supply a lot of plastics to Mexico by rail. I think that’s all positive. I would say our view in Americas, our view in Asia Pacific as China comes back, so will the rest of Asia Pacific, and then our view in Europe is a bit mixed.
Energy cost is better in Europe, which I think in the short term helps. It’s not as big a drag as it was. But I think longer term, Europe has got some structural issues if we can’t get energy costs down even lower. It puts a big weight on the consumer, which puts a big weight on demand, it puts additional weight on the industrial economy. So fortunately, we’ve got some cost advantage positions there that help us, and I think we’ll navigate through that. Back half of the year, we’ve got Industrial Solutions coming back to full strength. We’ve got our new projects coming on. I just mentioned $300 million to $400 million from that. That’s all in that volume growth number that I talked about. And the margin expansion is just the oil to gas spread on our existing business and the strength that we’re going to see in some pricing in polyethylene for the year.
So, I think we’re going to ramp in to ’25, get ourselves kind of back on to a mid-cycle run rate and we’re going to — in the meantime, we’re going to pull the levers like we’ve been doing to manage cash, keep the balance sheet strong, be the first mover in the next wave with the Alberta project, just like we were with Texas-9. This is the right time to do it. This is the time to lock-in the low cost for construction, and we’re ready to roll.
Operator: This ends our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the call back over to Mr. Gupta for closing remarks.
Pankaj Gupta: Yes. Thanks, Rob. Thank you, everyone, for joining our call, and we appreciate your interest in Dow. For your reference, a copy of transcript will be posted on Dow’s website in approximately 48 hours. This concludes our call. Thank you again.
Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
