DuPont sales up due to strong growth in emerging markets

24 Apr '08

3 min read

DuPont reports first quarter earnings growth of over 20 percent.

Highlights
- First quarter 2008 earnings were $1.31 per share compared to $1.01 in the prior year. Excluding a significant item charge in the prior year, earnings per share increased 22 percent.

- Sales grew 9 percent to $8.6 billion, reflecting 6 percent higher local selling prices and 5 percent currency benefit, partly offset by 1 percent lower volume and a net 1 percent reduction principally due to a chemical business divestiture. Local selling price gains more than offset higher ingredient costs.

- Sales in Agriculture & Nutrition increased 18 percent and earnings grew 21 percent, reflecting strong demand for the company's production agriculture products.

- Sales in emerging markets grew 25 percent, led by Brazil, China, India and Eastern Europe.

- Reduced demand in the United States for the company's products sold into construction and motor vehicle markets moderated results in the Safety & Protection and Coatings & Color Technologies segments.

- Segment pre-tax operating income (PTOI) increased to $1.9 billion. Excluding significant items, segment PTOI margin improved 1 percentage point to 21 percent.

"We're off to a strong start for the year," said DuPont Chairman and CEO Charles O. Holliday, Jr. "Our investments in agriculture and emerging markets enabled us to capitalize on robust growth in those areas which, when combined with gains from our productivity improvement programs, more than offset higher ingredient costs and weakness in certain U.S. markets. We'll continue to drive faster revenue growth from science-based, high value-added products and greater productivity."

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