NEW YORK, March 5, 2015 – DuPont (NYSE: DD) announced that at the J.P. Morgan Aviation, Transportation and Industrials Conference held today in New York, DuPont Executive Vice President Matthew L. Trerotola discussed strategy, progress and plans to accelerate growth in the three Advanced Materials segments for DuPont. Strengthening and growing the company’s leading position in high-value advanced materials is one of the three areas of strategic priority for DuPont.
Discussing the company’s Advanced Materials segments, Trerotola said, “We’ve made excellent progress in Performance Materials, Safety & Protection and Electronics & Communications. Our bottom line earnings and operating margins have increased, and we are committed to further improvements. Moving forward, we are driving to accelerate growth while expanding margins in support of the DuPont strategy to build a higher growth, higher value company.”
Mr. Trerotola highlighted the strong progress DuPont made across the company in 2014, including: further refining its portfolio with 10 strategic portfolio actions and the advancement of the anticipated mid-year spin-off of Chemours; increasing the company’s cost reduction targets for its operational redesign to at least $1.3 billion by 2017 on an annual run-rate basis; and continuing the company’s commitment to return significant capital to shareholders with $3.7 billion returned to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends in 2014 alone.
Mr. Trerotola also noted several factors the company and Advanced Materials segments are confronting that will have an impact on the first quarter, but expressed confidence in long-term performance: “As we noted before, 2015 will be a challenging economic environment as we face certain headwinds related to the strengthening of the U.S. dollar and the continued volatility in energy markets which impacts our Performance Materials segment. In addition, the unplanned outage at our Chambers Works facility will challenge productivity and earnings in our Safety & Protection segment in the first quarter. We are committed and confident in our ability to execute on our plans while remaining poised to capitalize on changing market conditions and growth opportunities.”
In addition, Mr. Trerotola outlined how DuPont is strengthening and growing its leading positions in Advanced Materials: “Today, DuPont is focused on a $50 billion portion of a $500 billion potential market. We believe we can accelerate our growth in the market space we are currently targeting while tapping into new market opportunities as our businesses execute against their strategies. These strategies include: step-changing applications development; collaborating for maximum success in key markets and applications, and driving an advanced materials pipeline of major innovations that includes both traditional and bio-based materials. While we have made strong bottom line progress in our Advanced Materials segments, we believe these initiatives will help us drive faster top line growth while retaining strong operating leverage.”
“Our market relevance and integrated science are true competitive advantages for DuPont. We use market-facing units, networks and strategic account management to maximize our relevance at key customers. Our business draws on leading science and engineering to bring integrated science solutions to the world. Going forward, we see very exciting opportunities to bring renewables and bio-engineered materials into new and existing applications in our markets,” concluded Trerotola.
DuPont Executive Vice President James C. Borel discussed growth priorities driven by key research advancements and product launches across the Agriculture and Nutrition & Health segments at today’s Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2015 Global Agriculture Conference.
“While farmers worldwide met the challenge of building grain supplies the last two years, long-term demand for agricultural production is expected to continue at the pace of the last decade, when demand for corn and soybeans increased 40 percent,” said Borel. “To meet this demand for more and better food, DuPont is delivering innovative solutions across the food value chain fueled by a robust research pipeline, which leverages our leading positions in seed, crop protection, ag services, biologicals, nutrition science and food formulation.”
Extending DuPont leadership in Agriculture and Nutrition is one of the company’s three strategic priorities to build a higher value, higher growth company. Following the separation of Performance Chemicals, the Agriculture and Nutrition & Health segments are expected to represent about half of total company sales.
Advancing Innovation in Agriculture Research Pipeline
Borel presented an update of the agriculture research pipeline for DuPont, noting six key program advancements and the addition of four research programs which have moved forward out of the discovery phase.
“Focused investments in research and development are yielding exciting innovation in our seed and crop protection pipelines and will position DuPont to better serve our customers and deliver value to our shareholders,” said Borel. “Our global pipeline reinforces our leadership in germplasm and breeding, crop protection, and our growing strength in proprietary biotechnology trait development.”
In addition, Borel highlighted near-term launches in corn by DuPont Pioneer, the advanced seed and genetics business of DuPont. DuPont Pioneer launched Pioneer® brand Optimum® Leptra® corn hybrids in the southern United States in 2014 under a stewarded program. With the recent Chinese import approval of the Agrisure Viptera® trait, DuPont Pioneer will expand its U.S. lineup of Optimum® Leptra® corn hybrids in 2015 and expects also to launch in Brazil for the 2015/2016 Safrinha season, pending completion of field testing and applicable regulatory reviews. DuPont Pioneer anticipates that the approaching launch of DP 4114 will help enable it to develop higher yielding corn hybrids and expand its triple-stack offerings to about half of its North American corn volume mix in the years following introduction. DP 4114 received cultivation approval in the United States and Canada in 2013 and will be tested in Pioneer’s IMPACT™ trial system in 2015. It is anticipated to launch in a stack configuration early in the second half of this decade, pending completion of field testing and applicable regulatory reviews.
In soybeans, DuPont Pioneer is making solid progress transitioning its North America soybean lineup to its newest Pioneer® brand T series soybean varieties, which will account for about two-thirds of volume in 2015. This year Pioneer® brand soybean varieties with the Roundup Ready 2 Xtend™ trait will be tested in IMPACT™ trials with first commercial sales anticipated as early as 2016, pending completion of field testing and applicable regulatory reviews.
While presenting the DuPont Crop Protection pipeline, Borel highlighted our new proprietary seed treatment solutions, including Dermacor® for soybeans which we successfully launched on over 3 million acres in Brazil last summer. The DuPont Crop Protection pipeline was recently named “Best R&D Pipeline” by Agrow for the second consecutive year and third-time overall, building upon the success of innovative insect control products like Rynaxypyr® and Cyazypyr®. Borel noted that over the life of these products, peak annual sales for Rynaxypyr® are expected to approach $1.5 billion and for Cyazypyr® are expected to exceed $500 million.
Borel also spoke about DuPont™ Zorvec™ disease control, a new low-rate mode of action fungicide for fruits and vegetables by DuPont Crop Protection. The first global launches are expected in 2015, pending regulatory approvals. DuPont believes Zorvec™ will provide growers with unmatched consistency and disease control to realize better crops for better business.
DuPont (NYSE: DD) has been bringing world-class science and engineering to the global marketplace in the form of innovative products, materials, and services since 1802. The company believes that by collaborating with customers, governments, NGOs, and thought leaders we can help find solutions to such global challenges as providing enough healthy food for people everywhere, decreasing dependence on fossil fuels, and protecting life and the environment. For additional information about DuPont and its commitment to inclusive innovation, please visit http://www.dupont.com.
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