Albemarle Hosts Grand Opening of Technical Center in China
NANJING, China, March 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Specialty chemicals maker Albemarle Corporation officially hoisted its flag over the heart of China’s chemical industry yesterday as it celebrated the “Grand Opening” of a new Technical Center and broke ground on a phosphorus flame retardant manufacturing plant at the company’s first wholly owned site in China.
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The Technical Center houses polymer and flammability testing laboratories and administrative offices for Albemarle’s Asia Pacific customer technical service team, which currently assists users of Albemarle’s flame retardants for polyurethane foams and thermoplastic polymers, and users of Albemarle’s antioxidants for polyolefins. The site also may serve as a new product development center for polyurethane foam flame retardants.
“The center provides the region a much-needed technical presence to help market our leading fire safety and other chemistry solutions to polymer formulators relocating to the Asia-Pacific region, and a growing number of local formulators here in China,” said Joe Tedder, Albemarle’s Nanjing site director.
Home to the Nanjing Chemical Industry Park (NCIP), one of China’s largest chemicals complexes, and 38 colleges and universities offering science and engineering studies, Nanjing is considered the heart of the chemicals industry in China.
“Opening the Technical Center in Nanjing provides an opportunity to benefit from outstanding Chinese chemical research capabilities and a vast pool of chemical industry talent,” Tedder said. “And when we start up our manufacturing facility here, we will be that much closer to the source of some key raw materials for the products we will make and market.”
Albemarle began construction on its 16.5-acre (67,000-square-meter) site at the NCIP in December 2005 and opened a polyolefin catalyst repackaging facility in May 2006. The flame retardant plant is scheduled for mechanical completion in the fourth quarter of 2007.
Albemarle Corporation, headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, 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 http://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.
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Albemarle Corporation
CONTACT: Media: Rene Milligan, +1-225-388-7106,Rene_Milligan@albemarle.com, or Investor Relations: Nicole Daniel,+1-804-788-6096, Nicole_Daniel@albemarle.com, both of Albemarle Corporation
Web site: http://www.albemarle.com/