DuPont (DD) consolidated its 23 businesses into 14 in an effort to streamline its operations. The 14 businesses are Pioneer Hi-Bred, Crop Protection, Nutrition & Health, Electronics & Communications, Performance Coatings, Performance Polymers, Packaging & Industrial Polymers, Protection Technologies, Building Innovations, Safety Resources, Chemical Solutions, Fluoroproducts, Titanium Technologies and Applied BioSciences.   DuPont also redefined its reporting segments to provide greater transparency. The new segments would be Agriculture & Nutrition (Pioneer Hi-Bred, Crop Protection, Nutrition & Health), Electronics & Communications, Performance Coatings, Performance Materials (Performance Polymers and Packaging & Industrial Polymers), Safety & Protection (Protection Technologies, Building Innovations, Safety Resources), Performance Chemicals (Chemical Solutions, Fluoroproducts, Titanium Technologies) and Pharmaceuticals (Applied BioSciences).

As part of the consolidation, the chemical maker commented that it eliminated the five group vice president positions and their supporting business structures associated with the platforms that house its businesses. The group vice presidents have currently been reabsorbed

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Recently, European Union antitrust regulators have approved the joint acquisition of U.S.-based company Biobutanol LLC by chemical giant DuPont (DD) and U.K-based oil major British Petroleum (BP). Biobutanol is a specialized form of butanol (butyl alcohol) that is like typical corn-based ethanol made from fermenting biomass. It has greater potential than ethanol to replace gasoline due to more favorable physical properties, economics and safety. However, biobutanol has been difficult to produce commercially on a big scale due to higher costs. This led DuPont to start attempting its commercialization of biobutanol through its Applied Biosciences division to leverage its huge market potential. The worldwide market for biobutanol is about 350 million gallons per year, with the U.S. market alone accounting for about 220 million gallons per year. DuPont and BP had formed a partnership in 2006 to develop, produce and market the next generation of ...