Albemarle Announces Custom Manufacturing Agreement With ExxonMobil Chemical

Agreement provides 15,000 metric tons per year of high viscosity polyalphaolefins production

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Jan 05, 2010, 09:19 ET

BATON ROUGE, La., Jan. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), a leading global provider of custom manufacturing services, announces the successful start-up of a new unit to produce SpectraSyn(TM) polyalphaolefins (PAO), a high viscosity basestock for lubricants, for ExxonMobil Chemical (NYSE: XOM). The plant's 15,000 mt/yr capacity was successfully rate tested in November.

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Albemarle's custom manufacturing business unit, Fine Chemistry Services (FCS), designed and built the facility using a combination of new and existing equipment at Albemarle's Pasadena, Texas production site.

"This project is held up as a model within our company for the speed and technical success achieved by the team. The timeline from the initial feasibility study to a successful rate test was only two years, which included the design, construction and start-up of the facility. Albemarle's FCS business model, focused on speed-to-market services with the highest quality results, drove this project to fruition," said Ron Gardner, Albemarle's vice president of fine chemicals.

Albemarle's FCS division makes and markets bulk and niche APIs for over- the-counter and prescription drugs, and provides custom manufacturing, R&D and other services to makers of pharmaceuticals, agricultural chemicals, specialty polymers and other high-value industry sectors. The FCS division is part of the company's Fine Chemicals business segment.

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 Chemicals. Albemarle employs over 4,100 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