Businessweek

FMC Corporation operates as a diversified chemical company serving agricultural, consumer and industrial markets worldwide. Segments The company operates in three segments: Agricultural Products, Specialty Chemicals, and Industrial Chemicals. Agricultural Products The Agricultural Products segment develops, manufactures, and sells a portfolio of crop protection, professional pest control and lawn and garden products. Agricultural Products' portfolio is comprised of three major pesticide categories: insecticides, herbicides and fungicides. Insecticides product line includes its pyrethroid and carbamate chemistries. The company’s herbicide portfolio primarily targets uses and controls a variety of difficult-to-control weeds. In 2011, the company acquired iprodione and prochloraz fungicides for all agricultural uses outside of Europe. This acquisition strengthened its fungicide portfolio offerings as these two fungicides are used in approximately 50 countries, primarily in the tree, fruit and vegetable markets. The company access key Western European markets through a Belgian-based pesticide distribution company, Belchim Crop Protection N.V., in which the company has an ownership interest. The company also has joint venture arrangements with Nufarm Limited in three countries in eastern Europe. In North America, the company accesses the market through several major national and regional distributors, including its own sales and marketing organization in Canada. In the large agricultural market of Brazil, the company accesses the market in part through independent distributors and in part the company sells directly to large growers through its own sales and marketing organization. The company access other South American markets through local independent distributors, its own sales and marketing organizations and its joint venture distributor in Argentina. Specialty Chemicals The Specialty Chemicals segment focuses on high-performance food ingredients, pharmaceutical excipients, biomedical technologies and lithium products. The significant majority of Specialty Chemicals sales are to customers in non-cyclical end markets. BioPolymer: BioPolymer is organized around the food and pharmaceutical markets. The company’s product offerings into the food markets principally provide texture, structure and physical stability (TSPS) to thicken and stabilize certain food products. The company’s formulation ingredients serving the pharmaceutical industry function as binders, disintegrants, suspending agents, and control release compounds for the production of both solid and liquid pharmaceutical products. BioPolymer is a supplier of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), carrageenan, alginates, natural colorants and pectin — naturally-derived ingredients that have high value-added applications in the production of food, pharmaceutical and other specialty consumer and industrial products. MCC, processed from specialty grades of renewable hardwood and softwood pulp, provides binding and disintegrant properties for dry tablets and capsules and has unique functionality that improves the texture and stability of food products. Carrageenan and alginates, both processed from natural seaweed, are used in a variety of food, pharmaceutical and oral care applications. In 2011, the company acquired South Pole Biogroup Ltda., a Chilean-based natural color and specialty nutrition ingredients manufacturer and in 2012 the company acquired Phytone Ltd., a natural colors producer based in the United Kingdom. Also in 2012, the company entered into the pectin market, through the acquisition of certain assets of Pectine Italia S.p.A, expanding its portfolio of hydrocolloid texturants and stabilizers. Lithium: Lithium is a vertically-integrated business, based on both inorganic and organic lithium chemistries. While lithium is sold into various end-markets, the company has focused its strategy on energy storage, specialty polymers, grease and pharmaceuticals. The electrochemical properties of lithium make it a material for portable energy storage in high performance applications, including smart phones, tablets, laptop computer