First Quarter 2009 Highlights
- Earnings were $0.03 per share, or $0.12 per share excluding certain items, as cost control actions and price/volume management mitigated the effects from the worst global recession in decades.
- Agricultural Sciences set quarterly records for both sales and EBIT. Sales for the segment increased 10% on a year-over-year basis, reflecting a 10% increase in volume.
- Purchased feedstock and energy costs were down 49% compared to the same quarter last year, contributing to a 20% decline in selling prices, with the majority of the decline in the Basics segments.
- EBIT excluding certain items improved sequentially, with the largest percentage improvement coming from the Performance segments, above and beyond the seasonality of Agricultural Sciences.
- Rapid actions to reduce operating costs in the quarter resulted in a decrease in spending of $270 million year-over-year and sequentially. Capital spending was down 35% in the quarter, in line with the company’s pre-acquisition 2009 capital spending commitment of $1.1 billion.
