Amid low chemical prices and demand uncertainty, U.S. materials science company Dow sees enormous growth potential in China, with its recent expansion in the country's eastern coastal city of Zhang-jia-gang. Take a look.

Chemicals, from the car you drive, to the lighting in your house, they are in everything we use. It's one of the oldest and largest manufacturing industries in any country. The world's chemical industry is highly multi-national, and going through a sea-change, led by digitalization and resulting in consolidation. Dow, the largest American chemical company, is entering a new period after its record merger. April saw the new Dow spin off from the DowDupont entity. Dow's sharpened focus on commodity chemicals is aimed at delivering more cash and profit to shareholders. You will need to balance the scale needed for massive investment, with the nimbleness required to innovate fast.

Dow, the largest American chemical company, is doubling down on the world's biggest chemical market, China, opening an 800 million dollars new plant in Zhang-jia-gang, Jiangsu province. Plastics -- a key product by materials companies like Dow, is having an image problem as awareness grows about plastics pollution, especially in oceans. The industry needs to do its part for sustainable growth, even if it means short term pain.

Materials science may not seem like an industry that epitomizes diversity, but Dow is trying to change that.