DuPont (1802–2017)

DuPont was founded in 1802 by Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, using capital raised in France and gunpowder machinery imported from France. He started the company at the Eleutherian Mills, on the Brandywine Creek, near Wilmington, Delaware, two years after du Pont and his family left France to escape the French Revolution and religious persecution against Huguenot Protestants. The company began as a manufacturer of gunpowder, as du Pont noticed that the industry in North America was lagging behind Europe. The company grew quickly, and by the mid-19th century had become the largest supplier of gunpowder to the United States military, supplying one-third to one-half the powder used by the Union Army during the American Civil War.[5] The Eleutherian Mills site is now a museum and a National Historic Landmark.

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. Charles Lee Reese was appointed as director and the company began centralizing their research departments.[6] The company subsequently purchased several smaller chemical companies; in 1912 these actions generated 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 (later Hercules Inc. and now part of Ashland Inc.) and the Atlas Powder Company (purchased by Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) and now part of AkzoNobel).[7] At the time of divestment, DuPont retained the single-base nitrocellulose powders, while Hercules held the double-base powders combining nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine. DuPont subsequently developed the Improved Military Rifle (IMR) line of smokeless powders.[8]

In 1910, DuPont published a brochure entitled "Farming with Dynamite". The pamphlet was instructional, outlining the benefits to using their dynamite products on stumps and various other obstacles that would be easier to remove with dynamite as opposed to other more conventional and inefficient means.[9]

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.

In 1914, Pierre S. du Pont invested in the fledgling automobile industry, buying stock in General Motors (GM). The following year he was invited to be 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 ($669,654,605 in 2021 dollars [10]). In 1920, Pierre S. du Pont was elected president of General Motors. Under du Pont's leadership, 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 its shares of General Motors.

A marker outside DuPont's Belle Plant in Dupont City, West Virginia, where ammonia was first synthesized for commercial use.

DuPont's Orlon plant in Camden, South Carolina, c. 1950s

In the 1920s, DuPont continued its emphasis on materials science, hiring Wallace Carothers to work on polymers in 1928. Carothers invented neoprene, a synthetic rubber;[11] the first polyester superpolymer; and, in 1935, nylon. The invention of Teflon followed a few years later and has since been proven responsible for health problems in those exposed to the chemical through manufacturing and home use.[12] DuPont introduced phenothiazine as an insecticide in 1935.[13]

DuPont ranked 15th among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts.[14] As the inventor and manufacturer of nylon, DuPont helped produce the raw materials for parachutes, powder bags,[15] and tires.[16]

DuPont also played a major role in the Manhattan Project in 1943, designing, building and operating the Hanford plutonium producing plant in Hanford, Washington. In 1950 DuPont also agreed to build the Savannah River Plant in South Carolina as part of the effort to create a hydrogen bomb.

DuPont was one of an estimated 150 American companies that provided Germany with patents, technology and material resources that proved crucial to the German war effort. DuPont maintained business connections with various corporations in Nazi Germany from 1933 until 1943 when all of DuPont's assets in Germany were seized by the German government along with those of all other American companies.[17]

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 has been the key company behind the development of modern body armor. In the Second World War DuPont's ballistic nylon was used by Britain's 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 used by police and military units.

In 1981, DuPont acquired Conoco Inc., a major American oil and gas producing company, which 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. Seagram became 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 in which the company would buy back all the shares owned by Seagram.[18]

In 1999, DuPont sold all of its shares of Conoco, which merged with Phillips Petroleum Company. DuPont acquired the Pioneer Hi-Bred agricultural seed company in 1999.

In October 2013, DuPont announced that it was planning to spin off its Performance Chemicals business into a new publicly traded company in mid-2015.[34] The company filed its initial Form 10 with the SEC in December 2014 and announced that the new company would be called The Chemours Company.[35] The spin-off to DuPont shareholders was completed on July 1, 2015, and Chemours stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on the same date.[36]

DuPont will focus on production of GMO seeds, materials for solar panels, and alternatives to fossil fuels. Chemours becomes responsible for the cleanup of 171 former DuPont sites, which DuPont says will cost between $295 million and $945 million.[37]

On December 11, 2015, DuPont announced that it would merge with the Dow Chemical Company, in an all-stock deal, subject to regulatory approval.[38] Commentators noted that the deal was likely to face antitrust scrutiny in several countries.[39] This eventually became the case, with two delays taking place due to regulatory approvals. The merger closed on August 31, 2017.[40] The combined company, which was known as DowDuPont, had an estimated value of $130 billion, was equally held by the shareholders of both companies, and maintained headquarters in Delaware and Michigan.[41]

Within two years of the merger's closure, DowDuPont planned to split into three separate public companies. The spin-offs occurred in 2019 resulting in Corteva (focused on the agricultural chemicals), Dow Inc. (focused on materials science), and DuPont (focused on specialty product industries). Commentators have questioned the economic viability of this plan because, of the three companies, only the specialty products industry has prospects for high growth.[41] The outlook on the profitability of the other two proposed companies has been questioned due to reduced crop prices and lower margins on plastics such as polyethylene.[41]

• Edward D. Breen, chair of the board and chief executive officer[44]
• Benito Cachinero-Sánchez, senior vice president – human resources
• James C. Collins Jr., executive vice president (Europe, Middle East and Africa)
• Nicholas C. Fanandakis, executive vice president and chief financial officer
• Douglas W. Muzyka, senior vice president and chief science and technology officer
• Stacy Fox, senior vice president and general counsel

On October 5, 2015, DuPont announced that Ellen Kullman would retire as chair and CEO on October 16, 2015.[46] Breen was appointed CEO in November 2015 replacing Kullman.[47][48][49]

Pioneer Hi-Bred, a DuPont subsidiary until 2019, manufactures genetically modified seeds, other tools, and agricultural technologies used to increase crop yield. In 2019, DowDuPont spun off its agricultural unit, which included Pioneer Hi-Bred, as an independent public company under the name Corteva.[69]

Dupont, along with Frigidaire and General Motors, was a part of a collaborative effort to find a replacement for toxic refrigerants in the 1920s, resulting in the invention of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) by Thomas Midgley in 1928.[70] CFCs are ozone-depleting chemicals that were used primarily in aerosol sprays and refrigerants. DuPont was the largest CFC producer in the world with a 25 percent market share in the 1980s, totaling $600 million in annual sales.[71]

In 1974, responding to public concern about the safety of CFCs,[72] DuPont promised to stop production of CFCs should they be proven to be harmful to the ozone layer. However, after the discovery of grave ozone depletion in 1986, DuPont, as a member of the industry group Alliance for Responsible CFC Policy, lobbied against regulations of CFCs. By 1989, it reversed course after calculating that it would profit from production of other chemicals used to replace CFCs.[73]

In February 1988, United States Senator Max Baucus, along with two other senators, wrote to DuPont reminding the company of its pledge. The Los Angeles Times reported that the letter was "generally regarded as an embarrassment for DuPont, which prides itself on its reputation as an environmentally conscious company."[71] The company responded with a strongly worded letter that the available evidence did not support a need to dramatically reduce CFC production and calling the proposal "unwarranted and counterproductive".[74]

On March 14 of the same year, scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Agency announced the results of a study demonstrating a 2.3% decline in mid-latitude ozone levels between 1969 and 1986, along with evidence tying the decline to CFCs in the upper atmosphere.[75] On March 24, DuPont reversed its position, calling the NASA results "important new information" and announcing that it would phase out CFC production. The company further called for worldwide controls on CFC production and for additional countries to ratify the Montreal Protocol. DuPont's change of policy was widely praised by environmentalists.[76] In 2003, DuPont was awarded the National Medal of Technology, recognizing the company as the leader in developing CFC replacements.[77]

DuPont has faced fines from the EPA and litigation over releases of the Teflon-processing aid perfluoro-octanoic acid (PFOA, also known as C8) from their works in Washington, West Virginia.[78] PFOA-contaminated drinking water led to increased levels of the compound in the bodies of residents who lived in the surrounding area. A court-appointed C8 Science Panel investigated "whether or not there is a probable link between C8 exposure and disease in the community."[79] In 2011, the panel concluded that there is a probable link between PFOA and kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, pre-eclampsia and ulcerative colitis.[80] Water contamination in the Netherlands and links to cancer are also being investigated.[81]

DuPont agreed to sharply reduce its output of PFOA,[82] and was one of eight companies to sign on with the EPA's 2010/2015 PFOA Stewardship Program. The agreement called for the reduction of "facility emissions and product content of PFOA and related chemicals on a global basis by 95 percent by 2010 and to work toward eliminating emissions and product content of these chemicals by 2015."[83] DuPont phased out PFOA entirely in 2013.

Unlike other persistent organic pollutants, PFOA persists indefinitely and is completely resistant to bio-degradation, remaining toxic. The only way to reduce levels in the body is by physical elimination rather than degradation.[84] In 2014, the International Agency for Research on Cancer designated PFOA as "possibly carcinogenic" in humans.[85] In October 2015, one Ohio resident was awarded $1.6 million when a jury found that her kidney cancer was caused by PFOA in drinking water. In December 2016, $2 million was awarded when a jury found it caused the plaintiff's testicular cancer and awarded punitive damages of $10.5 million.[86] This was the third case where a jury found DuPont liable for injuries resulting from exposure to PFOA in drinking water sources. There were 3,500 similar cases awaiting trial c. 2015. According to the co-lead counselor, internal documents revealed during trial showed DuPont had known of a link between PFOA and cancers since 1997. DuPont maintains it has always handled PFOA "reasonably and responsibly" based on the information they, and industry regulators, had available during its use. However, the jury concluded that DuPont did not act to prevent harm or inform the public, despite the information available.[87] In 2017, DuPont settled 3,550 personal injury claims related to the Parkersburg, West Virginia plant for $671 million.[88][89]

The litigation was the subject of the 2019 Todd Haynes film Dark Waters starring Mark Ruffalo.

In October 2010 DuPont began marketing a herbicide called Imprelis, for control of certain plants in turf areas. DuPont voluntarily pulled Imprelis from the market in August 2011 before the EPA issued a mandatory stop-sale order on Imprelis after being alerted of numerous reports from golf courses to nurseries that the product was suspected of injuring and, in some cases, killing trees. Norway spruce, white pines and honey locust proved to be among the species of trees that were susceptible.[90][91]

In 2005, the company pleaded guilty to fixing prices of chemicals and products that used neoprene, a synthetic rubber, resulting in an $84 million fine.[92]