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Albemarle Taking Steps to Respond to Global Economic Volatility - Reduce Costs, Conserve Cash and Reposition for 2009

Posted on: Friday, 19 December 2008, 13:23 CST

Worsening end-market demand- Albemarle CEO lays out plan to weather tough economic climate

BATON ROUGE, La., Dec. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Albemarle Corporation, (NYSE: ALB) a global leader in providing innovative solutions to the specialty chemicals market, held a teleconference Friday, December 19, 2008 at 10:00AM EST, to update investors and security analysts on Albemarle's current view of how the global economic crisis will factor into the company's 2009 business strategies.

Chairman and CEO Mark Rohr discussed steps Albemarle is taking to respond to volatile market conditions as well as the company's performance expectations for next year. While the economic slowdown is felt across the business portfolio, the recent downturn in consumer demand has had a severe impact on volumes and profitability of Albemarle's polymer additives business. This segment supplies products to the electronics, auto and construction markets. The company expects 2009 to be a challenging year in this segment until consumer markets rebound.

"Given the challenges of the global economic environment that has worsened in recent months, we are taking a number of proactive measures to position the company to better manage the market volatility we are seeing as well as position ourselves to be opportunistic," said Albemarle Chairman and CEO Mark Rohr.

Albemarle aims to achieve $40 million in annualized cost savings next year by accelerating cost reduction programs and resizing its business footprint. The company is keenly focused on maximizing cash flow through working capital reductions and prudent capital spending.

"Our core business principles and long-term fundamentals are stronger than ever," said Mark Rohr. "I can assure you that this team is more driven and committed to emerge as an even stronger company and exceed the expectations of our shareholders."

About Albemarle Corporation

Albemarle Corporation, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a leading global developer, manufacturer and marketer of highly engineered specialty chemicals for consumer electronics; petroleum and petrochemical processing; transportation and industrial products; pharmaceuticals; agricultural products; and construction and packaging materials. The Company operates in three business segments -- Polymer Additives, Catalysts and Fine Chemicals -- and serves customers in approximately 100 countries. Learn more about Albemarle at: 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 which 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

Source: PR Newswire

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