E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (, , ), commonly referred to as
DuPont or
Du Pont, is an
American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a
gunpowder mill by
Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont is currently the world's second largest chemical company (behind
BASF) in terms of
market capitalization and fourth (behind BASF,
Dow Chemical and
Ineos) in revenue. Its stock price is a component of the
Dow Jones Industrial Average.
In the twentieth century, DuPont led the
polymer revolution by developing many highly successful materials such as
Vespel,
neoprene,
nylon,
Corian,
Teflon,
Mylar,
Kevlar,
Zemdrain,
M5 fiber,
Nomex,
Tyvek and
Lycra. DuPont has also been significantly involved in the
refrigerant industry, developing and producing the
Freon (CFCs) series and later, more environmentally friendly refrigerants. In the paint and pigment industry, it has created synthetic pigments and paints, such as
ChromaFlair.
DuPont is often successful in popularizing the brands of its material products such that their
trademark names become
more commonly used than the generic or chemical word(s) for the material itself. One example is “neoprene”, which was intended originally to be a trademark but quickly came into common usage.
History
Original DuPont powder wagon
1802
DuPont was founded in 1802 by
Eleuthère Irénée du Pont, using capital raised in
France and gunpowder machinery imported from France. The company was started at the
Eleutherian Mills, on the
Brandywine Creek, near
Wilmington, Delaware,
USA two years after he and his family left
France to escape the
French Revolution. It began as a manufacturer of gunpowder, as du Pont had noticed that the industry in North America was lagging behind Europe and saw a market for it. The company grew quickly, and by the mid nineteenth century had become the largest supplier of gunpowder to the
United States military, supplying as much as half of the powder used by the
Union Army during the
American Civil War. (The
Eleutherian Mills site was declared a
National Historic Landmark in 1966 and is now a museum covering this history that may be visited today.)
1902 to 1912
Working powder mills on
Brandywine Creek, about 1905. Note the handwritten "These blow up occasionally, and then?"
DuPont continued to expand, moving into the production of
dynamite and
smokeless powder. In 1902, DuPont's president,
Eugene du Pont, died, and the surviving partners sold the company to three great-grandsons of the original founder. The company subsequently purchased several smaller chemical companies, and in 1912 these actions gave rise to government scrutiny under the
Sherman Antitrust Act. The courts declared that the company's dominance of the explosives business constituted a
monopoly and ordered
divestment. The court ruling resulted in the creation of the Hercules Powder Company (now
Hercules Inc.) and the Atlas Powder Company (now
AstraZeneca).
DuPont also established two of the first industrial laboratories in the United States, where they began the work on
cellulose chemistry,
lacquers and other non-explosive products.
DuPont Central Research was established at the
DuPont Experimental Station, across the
Brandywine Creek from the original powder mills.
1914
In 1914,
Pierre S. du Pont invested in the fledgling
automobile industry, buying stock of
General Motors (GM). The following year he was invited to sit on GM's board of directors and would eventually be appointed the company's chairman. The DuPont company would assist the struggling automobile company further with a $25 million purchase of GM stock. In 1920, Pierre S. du Pont was elected president of General Motors. Under du Pont's guidance, GM became the number one automobile company in the world. However, in 1957, because of DuPont's influence within GM, further action under the
Clayton Antitrust Act forced DuPont to divest itself of its shares of General Motors.
1920
In the 1920s DuPont continued its emphasis on
materials science, hiring
Wallace Carothers to work on
polymers in 1928. Carothers discovered
neoprene, the first
synthetic rubber, the first
polyester superpolymer and in 1935,
nylon. Discovery of
Lucite and
Teflon followed a few years later. 1935 was also the year that DuPont first introduced the chemical
phenothiazine as an insecticide.
World War II
Throughout this period, the company continued to be a major producer of war supplies. As the inventor and manufacturer of
nylon, DuPont helped produce the raw materials for
parachutes, powder bags, and
tires. DuPont also played a major role in the
Manhattan Project in 1943, designing, building and operating the
Hanford plutonium producing plant and the
Savannah River Plant in
South Carolina.
1950 to 1970
After the war, DuPont continued its emphasis on new materials, developing
Mylar,
Dacron,
Orlon and
Lycra in the 1950s, and
Tyvek,
Nomex,
Qiana,
Corfam and
Corian in the 1960s. DuPont materials were critical to the success of the
Apollo Space program.
DuPont has been the key company behind the development of modern
body armour. In World War II DuPont's ballistic nylon was used by the British
Royal Air Force to make
Flak jackets. With the development of
Kevlar in the 1960s, DuPont began tests to see if it could resist a lead bullet. This research would ultimately lead to the
bullet resistant vests that are the mainstay of police and military units in the industrialized world.
1981 to 1995
In 1981, DuPont acquired
Conoco Inc., a major American oil and gas producing company that gave it a secure source of petroleum feedstocks needed for the manufacturing of many of its fiber and plastics products. The acquisition, which made DuPont one of the top ten U.S.-based petroleum and natural gas producers and refiners, came about after a bidding war with the giant
distillery Seagram Company Ltd., which would become DuPont's largest single shareholder with four seats on the board of directors. On April 6, 1995, after being approached by Seagram Chief Executive Officer
Edgar Bronfman, Jr., DuPont announced a deal whereby the company would buy back all the shares owned by Seagram.
1999
In 1999, DuPont sold all of its Conoco shares, the business merging with
Phillips Petroleum Company. That year, CEO
Chad Holliday switched the company's focus towards producing DuPont chemicals from living plants rather than processing them from
petroleum.
Current activities
DuPont describes itself as a global science company that employs more than 60,000 people worldwide and has a diverse array of product offerings. In 2005, the Company ranked 66th in the Fortune 500 on the strength of nearly $28 billion in revenues and $1.8 billion in profits.
DuPont businesses are organized into the following five categories, known as marketing "platforms": Electronic and Communication Technologies, Performance Materials, Coatings and Color Technologies, Safety and Protection, and Agriculture and Nutrition.
In 2004 the company sold its textiles business, which included some of its best-known brands such as
Lycra (
Spandex),
Dacron polyester,
Orlon acrylic,
Antron nylon and
Thermolite, to
Koch Industries. DuPont also manufactures
Surlyn, which is used for the covers of golf balls, and, more recently, the body panels of the Club Car Precedent golf cart.
DuPont's annual R&D budget is $1.3 billion; its latest project is a research center in
Hyderabad, A.P.,
India scheduled to open in mid-2008, that will focus on agriculture and nutrition products.
Locations
The company’s corporate headquarters are located in Wilmington, Delaware. The company’s manufacturing, processing, marketing and research and development facilities, as well as regional purchasing offices and distribution centers are located throughout the world.
Corporate governance
Current board of directors
On September 23, 2008, DuPont announced that its board of directors had elected
Ellen J. Kullman president and a director of the company with effect from October 1, 2008 and Chief Executive Officer with effect from January 1, 2009.
Environmental record
Researchers at the Political Economy Research Institute of the
University of Massachusetts Amherst ranked DuPont as the largest corporate producer of
air pollution in the United States. The study found DuPont's most toxic pollution comprised
chloroprene (855,370 lb/yr, 387,989 kg/yr),
sulfuric acid (804,501 lb/yr, 364,916 kg/yr), and
chlorine (65,088 lb/yr, 29,523 kg/yr) based on
Toxics Release Inventory data. The most massive releases came in the form of more than 4 million pounds (1,800
t) of
carbonyl sulfide followed by 2 million pounds (900 t) of
hydrochloric acid.
In 2005,
BusinessWeek magazine, in conjunction with the , ranked DuPont as the best-practice leader in cutting their carbon gas emissions. They pointed out that DuPont reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 65% from the 1990 levels while using 7% less energy and producing 30% more product. May 24, 2007 marked the opening of the US$2.1 million DuPont Nature Center at Mispillion Harbor Reserve, a wildlife observatory and interpretive center on the Delaware Bay near
Milford, Delaware, USA. DuPont contributed both financial and technological support to create the center, as part of its "Clear into the Future" initiative to enhance the beauty and integrity of the Delaware Estuary. The facility will be state-owned and operated by the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC). DuPont is a founding member of the
World Business Council for Sustainable Development with DuPont CEO
Charles O. Holliday being Chairman of the WBCSD from 2000–2001.
Positive recognition
DuPont has been awarded the
National Medal of Technology four times: first in 1990, for its invention of "high-performance man-made polymers such as
nylon,
neoprene rubber, "
Teflon" fluorocarbon resin, and a wide spectrum of new fibers, films, and engineering plastics"; the second in 2002 "for policy and technology leadership in the phaseout and replacement of
chlorofluorocarbons". Additionally, DuPont scientist
George Levitt was honored with the
medal in 1993 for the development of sulfonylureas—environmentally friendly herbicides for every major food crop in the world. In 1996, DuPont scientist
Stephanie Kwolek was recognized for the discovery and development of
Kevlar.
Controversies
Hemp
It is often asserted in pro-cannabis publications that DuPont actively supported the
criminalization of the production of hemp in the US in 1937 through private and government intermediates, and alleged that this was done to eliminate hemp as a source of
fiber—one of DuPont's biggest markets at the time. Hemp paper threatened DuPont's monopoly on the necessary chemicals for paper from trees, and Nylon, a synthetic fiber, was patented the same year that hemp was made illegal. The company denies these allegations.
Behind the Nylon Curtain
In 1974,
Gerard Colby Zilg, wrote
Du Pont: Behind the Nylon Curtain, a critical account of the role of the DuPont family in American social, political and economic history. The book was nominated for a
National Book Award in 1974.
A du Pont family member obtained an advance copy of the manuscript and was “predictably outraged”. A DuPont official contacted The Fortune Book Club and stated that the book was “scurrilous” and “actionable” but produced no evidence to counter the charges. The Fortune Book Club (a subsidiary of the Book of the Month Club) reversed its decision to distribute Zilg's book. The editor-in-chief of the Book of the Month Club declared that the book was “malicious” and had an “objectionable tone”. Prentice-Hall removed several inaccurate passages from the page proofs of the book, and cut the first printing from 15,000 to 10,000 copies, stating that 5,000 copies no longer were needed for the book club distribution. The proposed advertising budget was reduced from $15,000 to $5,000.
Zilg sued Prentice-Hall (
Zilg v. Prentice-Hall), accusing it of reneging on a contract to promote sales.
The Federal District Court ruled that
Prentice Hall had "privished" the book (the company conducting an intentionally inadequate merchandising effort) and breached its obligation to Zilg to use its best efforts in promoting the book because the publisher had no valid business reason for reducing the first printing or the advertising budget. The court also ruled that the DuPont Company had a constitutionally protected interest in discussing its good faith opinion of the merits of Zilg's work with the book clubs and the publisher, and found that the company had not engaged in threats of economic coercion or baseless litigation.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned the damages award in September 1983. The court stated that, while DuPont's actions “surely” resulted in the book club's decision not to distribute Zilg's work and also resulted in a change in Prentice-Hall's previously supportive attitude toward the book, DuPont's conduct was not actionable. The court further stated that the contract did not contain an explicit “best efforts” or “promote fully” promise, much less an agreement to make certain specific promotional efforts. Printing and advertising decisions were within Prentice-Hall's discretion.
Zilg lost a
Supreme Court appeal in April 1984.
In 1984
Lyle Stuart re-released an extended version,
Du Pont Dynasty: Behind the Nylon Curtain.
Chlorofluorocarbons
Along with
General Motors, DuPont was the inventor of CFCs (
chlorofluorocarbons), and the largest producer of these
ozone-depleting chemicals (used primarily in
aerosol sprays and
refrigerants) in the world, with a 25% market share in the late 1980s.
In 1974, responding to public concern about the safety of CFCs, DuPont promised through newspaper advertisements and
congressional testimony to stop production of CFCs should they be proven to be harmful to the ozone layer. On March 4, 1988,
U.S. Senators Max Baucus (
D-
Mont.),
David Durenberger (
R-
Minn.), and
Robert T. Stafford (R-
Vt.) officially wrote to DuPont, in their capacity as the leadership of the Congressional subcommittee on hazardous wastes and toxic substances, asking the company to keep its promise to completely stop CFC production (and to do so for most CFC types within one year) in light of the 1987 international
Montreal Protocol for the global reduction of CFCs (signed for the United States by President
Ronald Reagan). The Senators argued that “DuPont has a unique and special obligation” as the original developer of CFCs and the author of previous public assurances made by the company regarding the safety of CFCs. DuPont's response was that the senatorial demand was more drastic than the scientific evidence warranted, and that alternative chemicals were only in their infancy.
In a dramatic turnaround on March 24, 1988, DuPont announced that it would begin leaving the CFC business entirely after a March 15
NASA announcement that CFCs were not only creating a hole in the ozone layer above
Antarctica but also thinning the layer elsewhere in the world. Patrick Hossay argues in his book
Unsustainable that DuPont "had begun researching substitutes for CFCs in the 1970s when sales began to slump. Because the company moved on alternatives to CFCs before its competitors, any ban on their use would give the company a sharp advantage."
DuPont announced that it would stop selling CFCs with a full page ad in the April 27, 1992
New York Times stating “we will stop selling CFC's as soon as possible, but no later than year end 1995 in the US and other developed countries.”
Lewis du Pont Smith, in an April 27, 1994, open letter to shareholders on DuPont’s CFC Policy, warns that DuPont Corporation will be destroyed when a consumer backlash demands a Congressional investigation “regarding the science behind the ozone depletion fraud and the economic forces that pushed for the CFC ban”, which he called “the most massive consumer fraud of this century”, warning that “The cost to consumers of the ban on CFCs will exceed $5 trillion: the consequences on human health will be devastating.” Eight years before, Lewis du Pont Smith had been declared mentally incompetent to handle his affairs after he gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to
Lyndon LaRouche.
In later years, DuPont would maintain that the company had taken the initiative in phasing out CFCs and in replacing CFCs with a new generation of refrigerant chemicals, such as
HCFCs and
HFCs. In 2003, DuPont was awarded the
National Medal of Technology, recognizing the company as the leader in developing CFC replacements.
PFOA (C8)
DuPont has faced fines from the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and litigation over releases of the
Teflon processing aid
perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA, also known as C8) from their Washington Works
Washington, West Virginia plant. PFOA contaminated
drinking water led to increased levels in the bodies of residents in the surrounding area. The court-appointed C8 Science Panel is investigating "whether or not there is a probable link between
C8 exposure and disease in the community." The C8 Science Panel started releasing data in October 2008 and linked high
cholesterol but not diabetes to exposure. DuPont has also faced
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings from the shareholder group DuPont Shareholders for Fair Value over the company's transparency regarding the chemical.
DuPont has agreed to sharply reduce its output of PFOA, and was one of eight companies to sign on with the USEPA's 2010/2015 PFOA Stewardship Program. The agreement calls for the reduction of "facility emissions and product content of PFOA and related chemicals on a global basis by 95 percent no later than 2010 and to work toward eliminating emissions and product content of these chemicals by 2015." However, questions remain if the biological effects to people from this chemical translate into health effects.
NASCAR sponsorship
DuPont is widely known for its sponsorship of
NASCAR driver
Jeff Gordon and his
Hendrick Motorsports #24
Chevrolet Impala SS. DuPont has been sponsoring Jeff Gordon since he began in
Sprint Cup (then Winston Cup) in 1992. DuPont has said this about their sponsorship:
Our sponsorship of Jeff Gordon helps keep DuPont brands and products in the public eye. Branding is a key component of the DuPont knowledge intensity strategy for achieving sustainable growth.
In 2009, DuPont,
Jeff Gordon, and
Hendrick Motorsports celebrated their 17th season together. It is currently the longest driver/sponsor/owner combination in NASCAR.
See also
