Albemarle Announces Completion of R&D Facility in South Korea

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Oct 20, 2010, 04:58 ET

BATON ROUGE, La., Oct. 20, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Albemarle (NYSE: ALB), announced today it has completed the R&D laboratory facilities and begun construction on its Yeosu, South Korea manufacturing facility. Albemarle staff, representatives of local construction firm, Safety First, and City of Yeosu officials, including Mayor Kim Chung-seog, joined to mark the occasion.

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Mayor Kim thanked Albemarle for its investment in Yeosu and pledged the City's support in this strategic investment. "The rapid development of the site demonstrates Albemarle's commitment to adding immediate value to customers in the region," he commented.

"We are very thankful to the City of Yeosu for its continued strong support of Albemarle as we have escalated construction and engineering design activities for this facility. We look forward to meeting our Asian customers' current needs through local supply in both the metallocene polyolefin industry as well as the High Brightness LED (HBLED) industry," said Jason Bevan, Site Operations Manager - Albemarle Yeosu.

The completion of the Yeosu site R&D lab facility enables the production of metallocene poly-olefin catalyst lab samples incorporating Albemarle's breakthrough ActivCat™ technology for qualification trials with local customers. Pilot plant facilities will be completed in 2010. Intermediate commercial operations will begin in mid-2011, with the commercial facility being fully operational in 2012. The site will produce finished catalysts, activators like methylaluminoxane (MAO) and metallocene components, as well as High Purity Metal Organics for the HBLED 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 recently selected Albemarle to its prestigious "100 Best Corporate Citizens" list for 2010. Albemarle employs over 4,000 people and serves customers in approximately 100 countries. To learn more, visit www.albemarle.com.

"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