Inventories:

The following table provides a breakdown of inventories at December 31, 2015 and 2014 (in thousands):



	December 31,
	2015		2014
Finished goods	$	308,462	$	262,769
Raw materials and work in process^(a)	144,886		53,152
Stores, supplies and other	55,380		42,440
Total inventories	$	508,728	$	358,361


(a)	Balance at December 31, 2015 includes $39.1 million of work in process related to the Lithium product category.

Approximately 17% and 28% of our inventories are valued using the last-in, first-out (“LIFO”) method at December 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively. The portion of our domestic inventories stated on the LIFO basis amounted to $85.1 million and $100.7 million at December 31, 2015 and 2014, respectively, which are below replacement cost by approximately $36.9 million and $43.0 million, respectively.