The DuPont company saw an 11 percent drop from this time last year in its quarterly earnings announced Tuesday.
DuPont's second quarter sales were 8.6 billion dollars. The company’s net income dipped under a billion dollars to $940 million, and operating earnings per share were down a cent from a year ago to $1.17.
Operating earnings in areas like agriculture and industrial bioscience all decreased. But the biggest upset was in performance chemicals, which saw a decrease in earnings of $138 million -- a 55 percent decline from this time last year. The company attributes that to factors like lower prices for titanium dioxide and a stronger dollar.
There was modest growth in some business sectors, like performance materials and electronics & communications. The company says that's due to increased productivity.
Chemours, a company which spun off from DuPont on July 1st, has seen its operating earnings fall as well. The company says its board has "authorized the company to purchase and retire $2 billion of common stock by Dec. 31, 2015.”