The use of financial instruments, including derivatives, exposes the Company to market risk related to changes in interest rates, foreign currency exchange rates and commodity prices. The Company primarily uses derivatives to manage its interest rate exposure, to achieve a desired proportion of variable and fixed-rate debt, to manage the risk associated with the volatility of future cash flows denominated in foreign currencies, to manage changes in fair value resulting from changes in foreign currency exchange rates and to manage the risk associated with the volatility of future cash flows associated with changes in commodity prices. The Company does not use derivative instruments for speculative or trading purposes.

Fair Value Hedges-Interest Rate Swap Agreements

The Company generally enters into interest rate swap agreements related to existing debt obligations with initial maturities ranging from 5 to 10 years, although the Company may enter into interest rate swap agreements with respect to debt obligations with shorter or longer maturities. The Company’s interest rate swap agreements have the economic effect of modifying the fixed interest obligations associated with approximately $596.0 million of the medium-term notes so that the interest payable on these medium-term notes effectively became variable. The Company uses these interest rate swap agreements to manage its interest rate exposure and to achieve a desired proportion of variable and fixed-rate debt. The critical terms of the interest rate swap agreements match the critical terms of the medium-term notes that the interest rate swap agreements pertain to, including the notional amounts and maturity dates. These transactions are characterized as fair value hedges for accounting purposes because they protect the Company against changes in the fair values of certain fixed-rate borrowings due to benchmark interest rate movements. The changes in fair values of these interest rate swap agreements are recognized as interest expense in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations with the corresponding amounts included in other assets or other noncurrent liabilities in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets. The amount of net gain (loss) attributable to the risk being hedged is recognized as interest expense in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations with the corresponding amount included in current portion of long-term debt and long-term debt. The periodic interest settlements for the interest rate swap agreements are recorded as interest expense and are included as a part of cash flows from operating activities.

Cash Flow Hedges-Forward-Starting Interest Rate Swaps

The Company also uses derivatives to hedge interest rates on anticipated issuances of medium-term and long-term notes. The Company generally uses these instruments to hedge interest rates on anticipated debt issuances occurring within one year or less of the inception date of the derivative, although the Company may use such instruments to hedge interest rates on anticipated issuances occurring beyond one year of the inception date of the derivative. The Company uses these instruments to reduce the volatility in future interest payments that would be made pursuant to the anticipated issuances of the notes. These derivatives are designated as cash flow hedges. The changes in fair values of these instruments are recognized in other comprehensive income (loss), and after the notes are issued and the derivative instruments are settled, the amount in other comprehensive income (loss) is amortized to interest expense in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations over the term of the related notes. The cash paid or received from the settlement of forward-starting interest rate swaps is included in cash flows from operating activities.

Cash Flow Hedges-Cross-Currency Interest Rate Swap Agreements

The Company’s foreign exchange risk management policy emphasizes hedging foreign currency intercompany financing activities with derivatives, and the hedges and related intercompany financing arrangements generally have maturity dates of 3 years or less from inception. The Company may use such instruments to hedge intercompany financing arrangements with maturities of more than three years. The Company uses derivative instruments, such as cross-currency interest rate swap agreements, to hedge currency risk associated with foreign currency-denominated assets and liabilities associated with intercompany financing activities. In connection with intercompany financing arrangements entered into in April 2015, the Company entered into two cross-currency interest rate swap agreements to manage the related foreign currency exchange risk of the intercompany financing arrangements. As of September 30, 2016, the notional value of outstanding cross-currency interest rate swaps was $188.0 million, and the cross-currency interest rate swaps are intended to eliminate uncertainty in cash flows in U.S. Dollars and British Pounds in connection with the intercompany financing arrangements. The cross-currency interest rate swap agreements have been designated as qualifying hedging instruments and are accounted for as cash flow hedges. The critical terms of the cross-currency interest rate swap agreements correspond to the terms of the intercompany financing arrangements, including the annual principal and interest payments being hedged, and the cross-currency interest rate swap agreements mature at the same time as the intercompany financing arrangements.

The Company uses the hypothetical derivative method to measure the effectiveness of its cross-currency interest rate swap agreements. The fair values of these cross-currency interest rate swap agreements are recognized as other assets or other noncurrent liabilities in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets. The effective portions of the changes in fair values of these cross-currency interest rate swap agreements are reported in accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets and an amount is reclassified out of accumulated other comprehensive income (loss) into other expense, net, in the same period that the carrying value of the underlying foreign currency intercompany financing arrangements are remeasured. The ineffective portion of the unrealized gains and losses on these cross-currency interest rate swaps, if any, is recorded immediately to other expense, net. The Company evaluates the effectiveness of its cross-currency swap agreements on a quarterly basis, and the Company did not record any ineffectiveness for the nine months ended September 30, 2016 and 2015. The cash flows related to the cross-currency interest rate swap agreements, including amounts related to the periodic interest settlements and the principal balances, are included in cash flows from operating activities.

Foreign Currency Forward Contracts

A portion of our revenues, costs and earnings in foreign affiliates is exposed to changes in foreign exchange rates. The Company seeks to manage such foreign exchange risk, in part, through operational means, including managing same-currency revenues in relation to same-currency costs and same-currency assets in relation to same-currency liabilities. Depending on market conditions, foreign exchange risk also is managed through the use of derivative financial instruments.

All derivative contracts used to manage foreign currency risk are measured at fair value and are reported as assets or liabilities on the consolidated balance sheet. Changes in fair value are reported in earnings or in Other comprehensive income/(loss) (“OCI”), depending on the nature and purpose of the financial instrument (offset or hedge relationship) and the effectiveness of the hedge relationships, as follows:


•	The Company records in OCI the effective portion of the gains or losses on foreign currency forward-exchange contracts that are designated as cash flow hedges and reclassify those amounts, as appropriate, into earnings in the same period or periods during which the hedged transaction affects earnings.

•

The Company recognizes the gains and losses on foreign currency forward-exchange contracts that are used to offset the same foreign currency assets or liabilities immediately into earnings along with the earnings impact of the items they generally offset. These contracts essentially take the opposite currency position of that reflected in the month-end balance sheet to counterbalance the effect of any currency movement. Such contracts are not designated as hedges.

As of September 30, 2016, the notional amount of contracts designated as hedges was $381.9 million and the notional amount of contracts not designated as hedges was $1.0 billion.

Hedging instruments are not available for certain currencies in countries in which the Company has operations. In these cases, the Company uses alternative means in an effort to achieve an economic offset to the local currency exposure such as invoicing and/or paying intercompany and third party transactions in U.S. Dollars.

The Company reports its derivative positions in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets on a gross basis and does not net asset and liability derivative positions with the same counterparty. The Company monitors its positions with, and the credit quality of, the financial institutions that are parties to its financial transactions.

Commodity Contracts

The Company enters into commodity-based derivatives in order to mitigate the risk associated with the impact changes in prices of commodities could have on the cost of certain of the Company’s raw materials. These commodity-based derivatives provide the Company with cost certainty, and in certain instances, allow the Company to benefit should the cost of the commodity fall below certain dollar thresholds. At September 30, 2016, the Company had approximately $7.2 million notional amount outstanding of commodity-based derivatives that are not designated as effective hedges for accounting purposes and have maturity dates through June 2017. Fair market value gains or losses associated with commodity derivative instruments are included in the results of operations and are classified in cost of products sold.