Inventories (Tables)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2019

The following table provides a breakdown of inventories at September 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018 (in thousands):



	September 30,		December 31,
	2019		2018
Finished goods^(a)(b)	$	561,981	$	482,355
Raw materials and work in process^(c)	173,973		158,290
Stores, supplies and other	66,480		59,895
Total	$	802,434	$	700,540


(a)	Increase primarily due to the build-up of inventory in our Lithium and Catalysts segments to meet higher projected sales during the remainder of 2019.


(b)	Included $96.3 million and $104.3 million at September 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively, of chemical grade spodumene in our Lithium segment, most of which is converted to battery-grade products either internally or through our tolling agreements. We expect this amount to continue to decrease in the fourth quarter of 2019.

(c)

Included $70.3 million and $71.4 million at September 30, 2019 and December 31, 2018, respectively, of work in process in our Lithium segment.