Business Description
Koppers Holdings Inc. was incorporated in November 2004 as a holding company
for Koppers Inc. We are a leading integrated global provider of treated wood
products, wood treatment chemicals, and carbon compounds. Our products and services
are used in a variety of niche applications in a diverse range of end-markets,
including the railroad, specialty chemical, utility, residential lumber, agriculture,
aluminum, steel, rubber, and construction industries. We serve our customers
through a comprehensive global manufacturing and distribution network, with
manufacturing facilities located in North America, South America, Australasia,
China and Europe.
We operate three principal business segments: Railroad and Utility Products
and Services (“RUPS”), Performance Chemicals (“PC”),
and Carbon Materials and Chemicals (“CMC”).
We believe our three business segments command leading market positions. Through
our RUPS business, we believe that we are the largest supplier of railroad crossties
to the North American railroads. Through our CMC business, we believe we are
the largest global supplier of creosote to the North American railroad industry.
Through our PC business, we believe that we are the largest global manufacturer
and supplier of water-based wood preservatives and wood specialty additives
to treaters who supply the residential, agricultural and industrial pressure-treated
wood markets.
Our RUPS and CMC operations are, to a substantial extent, vertically integrated.
Through our CMC business, we process coal tar into a variety of products, including
creosote, which is an intermediate material necessary in the pressure treatment
of wood crossties and other related railroad products. The majority of the creosote
we produce in North America and Europe is sold internally to our RUPS business
for treating railroad crossties.
PC’s global research group is located in the United States, with supplemental
resources in the United Kingdom. We believe our investment in research and development
keeps us on the leading edge of new wood preservation technologies. The wood
preserving intellectual property that the PC research group has developed and
patented remains a very important part of our wood preservative portfolio. This
intellectual property includes micronizing various chemical and additive formulations
and the methods of treating wood with these formulations. In particular, one
of our patented technologies, MicroPro® wood preservative, has been adopted
since its commercialization by many of our wood treating customers and the industry’s
retailers and lumber dealers.
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