DuPont Sees 2010 Rebound; Pushes Overseas Sales

SANDY SHORE

A leaner DuPont chemical company is pushing hard into China and other developing countries and said Tuesday it is in position to outperform markets that have been rattled by the recession.

DuPont Co., based in Wilmington, Del., has seen its sales to big customers in the housing and automobile industry fall away, forcing the company to cut thousands of jobs and place a growing emphasis on its agricultural business, such as seed sales and materials used in advanced technologies like solar power.

Much of that activity will be outside of the U.S. and in places like Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Sales to emerging markets is expected to grow to $12 billion by the end of 2012, about 50 percent more than this year, DuPont said.

DuPont will deliver 20 percent compound annual earnings growth between now and 2012, said CEO Ellen Kullman at the company's annual investor day.

"We are well-positioned to outperform the rate at which markets recover and improve," Kullman said.