DuPont has revised its outlook for operating earnings per share for Q2 and full year 2014, due primarily to lower than expected quarterly performance of its Agriculture segment and, to a lesser extent, Performance Chemicals.

The US chemical producer now expects operating profit in Q2 to come in moderately below the $1.28 per share recorded in the same period last year. For the full year it has lowered its outlook to $4.00-4.10 per share.

The revised outlook in Agriculture reflects lower than expected corn seed sales and higher than expected seed inventory write-downs. Soybean sales volumes in North America were higher than expected, but this will not fully offset the decline in corn volume.

DuPont's revised outlook also reflects lower than expected crop protection herbicide sales, which it blames largely on adverse weather.

Looking ahead,CEO Ellen Kullman said: "We have a strong global market position and a rich pipeline and we will make the necessary changes so that we return to our five-year track record of delivering the reliable, attractive growth our shareholders expect from this segment."

In Performance Chemicals Q2 results will be impacted by lower than expected selling prices in refrigerants for mobile and stationary applications.

Separately, DuPont said the corporate redesign following the carve-out of Performance Chemicals from mid-2015 will deliver near-term savings from the movement and elimination of costs related to the separation as well as productivity improvements across all businesses, regions and functions.

Additionally, an "extensive redesign of DuPont's infrastructure, with a focus on automation and global standardization of transactional processes" will create a lower-cost systems environment and define new sources of savings as these changes are implemented broadly across the company, Kullmann said.

The company expects to record a restructuring charge of about $270 million pre-tax, or $.20 per share, after tax, in the second quarter related to the first actions under the redesign initiative. It also expects to incur future charges related to the initiative as it implements additional actions.

"Together, all of these efforts will contribute to at least $1 billion in savings by the end of 2019 from a 2013 baseline - two-thirds by the end of 2015 on a run-rate basis and the final third occurring between 2016 and 2019," Kullman added.