Albemarle starts-up new single site catalyst commercial plant in South Korea

YEOSU, South Korea, Aug. 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), announced today the successful start-up of a new catalyst manufacturing plant at its facility in Yeosu, South Korea.  The plant will produce commercial quantities of single site metallocene catalysts, including grades enhanced by Albemarle's proprietary ActivCat® activation technology, as well as catalyst components such as methylaluminoxane (MAO).

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With this new plant, the state-of-art Yeosu facility now offers a fully integrated platform able to produce lab, pilot and commercial quantities of metallocene catalysts to support the growing needs of polyolefin producers around the world, including those in the high-growth Asia-Pacific region.

"The commercial unit in Yeosu is the latest in a series of investments that we have undertaken to meet the growing global demand for metallocene and single site finished catalysts," said Amy Hebert, vice president of Albemarle's Catalysts global business unit.  "With these new assets, we are not only increasing capacity and improving our portfolio, we are bringing the finished product closer to the end-user."

"With metallocene catalyst production capabilities located in both Yeosu and Baton Rouge, we now offer customers around the world an unmatched security of supply," said Raphael Crawford, vice president of Albemarle's Performance Catalyst Solutions division.  "And, our integrated scale-up capabilities enable us to partner with customers for increased speed-to-market."

About Albemarle
Albemarle Corporation, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a leading global developer, manufacturer, and marketer of highly-engineered specialty chemicals for consumer electronics, petroleum refining, utilities, packaging, construction, automotive/transportation, pharmaceuticals, crop protection, food-safety and custom chemistry services. The Company is committed to global sustainability and is advancing its eco-practices and solutions in its three business segments, Polymer Solutions, Catalysts and Fine Chemistry. Corporate Responsibility Magazine selected Albemarle to its prestigious "100 Best Corporate Citizens" list for 2010, 2011 and 2013.  Albemarle employs approximately 4,200 people and serves customers in approximately 100 countries. Albemarle regularly posts information to www.albemarle.com, including notification of events, news, financial performance, investor presentations and webcasts, Regulation G reconciliations, SEC filings, and other information regarding the Company, its businesses and the markets we serve.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Albemarle Corporation's business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K.

SOURCE Albemarle Corporation