Property, Plant and Equipment

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2013

Property, Plant and Equipment [Abstract]

Property, Plant and Equipment:

Property, plant and equipment, at cost, consist of the following at December 31, 2013 and 2012 (in thousands):



	Useful Lives (Years)	December 31,
	Useful Lives (Years)	2013		2012
Land	—	$	63,153	$	61,123
Land improvements	5 – 30	52,452		51,218
Buildings and improvements	10 – 45	235,929		198,260
Machinery and equipment^(a)	2 – 19	1,731,247		1,603,533
Machinery and equipment (major plant components)^(b)	20 – 45	688,284		586,433
Long-term mineral rights and production equipment costs	7 – 60	85,514		83,089
Construction in progress	—	115,505		234,948
Total		$	2,972,084	$	2,818,604


(a)	Consists primarily of (1) short-lived production equipment components, office and building equipment and other equipment with estimated lives ranging 2 – 7 years, and (2) production process equipment (intermediate components) with estimated lives ranging 8 – 19 years.


(b)	Consists primarily of (1) production process equipment (major unit components) with estimated lives ranging 20 – 29 years, and (2) production process equipment (infrastructure and other) with estimated lives ranging 30 – 45 years.

The cost of property, plant and equipment is depreciated generally by the straight-line method. Depreciation expense amounted to $99.3 million, $88.3 million and $83.6 million during the years ended December 31, 2013, 2012 and 2011, respectively. Interest capitalized on significant capital projects in 2013, 2012 and 2011 was $6.1 million, $5.8 million and $2.4 million, respectively.

In 2012 we announced our plan to exit the phosphorus flame retardants business, whose products were sourced mainly at our Avonmouth, United Kingdom and Nanjing, China manufacturing sites. In connection with our exit of this business, net property, plant and equipment was written down by $30.9 million, and in the fourth quarter of 2012 we received cash proceeds of $7.7 million from the sale of our Nanjing, China manufacturing site, which resulted in the recognition of a gain of approximately $2 million. See Note 2 “Supplemental Cash Flow Information” and Note 19 “Special Items” for additional details about our exit of the phosphorus flame retardants business.

In the fourth quarter of 2012, we received proceeds of $1.9 million in connection with the sale of land adjacent to our regional offices in Belgium.

In the third quarter of 2010, we purchased certain property and equipment in Yeosu, South Korea in connection with our plans for building a metallocene polyolefin catalyst and trimethyl gallium manufacturing facility. Cash payments related to this acquisition were $6.5 million in 2011.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for long-lived, physical assets that are used in the normal conduct of business to produce goods and services and not intended for resale. Examples include land, buildings, machinery and equipment, and other types of furniture and equipment including, but not limited to, office equipment, furniture and fixtures, and computer equipment and software. This disclosure may include property plant and equipment accounting policies and methodology, a schedule of property, plant and equipment gross, additions, deletions, transfers and other changes, depreciation, depletion and amortization expense, net, accumulated depreciation, depletion and amortization expense and useful lives, income statement disclosures, assets held for sale and public utility disclosures.

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