Albemarle Corporation is a chemical company with corporate headquarters in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is a specialty chemical manufacturing
enterprise. The company employs approximately 6,900 people and serves
customers in approximately 100 countries.
History The Albemarle Paper Manufacturing
Company opened in 1887 with the production of kraft paper, also known as
Kraft, and blotting paper. In 1921, a team of chemists performing
research for General Motors discovered tetraethyllead had antiknock properties
as a gasoline additive. As a result, the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation in Richmond,
Virginia began production of tetraethyllead in 1937. TEL remained the
primary product of the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation through the next four
decades. When the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation expanded its product line,
its name was changed to the Ethyl Corporation.
The Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Company borrowed $200 million in 1962
and purchased Ethyl Corporation, a company more than thirteen times its
size. Throughout the next few decades, The
Ethyl Corporation, under the direction of the Albemarle Paper Manufacturing
Company, further expanded their product line to include bromine, lubricant
additives, and aluminum alkyls. Further expansion of The Ethyl Corporation
included the purchases of Dow Chemical's bromine division, Russ Pharmaceuticals,
Inc., and Potasse et Produits Chimiques. In February 1994, Ethyl spun off its
chemical businesses to create an independent, publicly traded company
named Albemarle Corporation. Albemarle was headquartered in Richmond, VA, until
2008 when it announced plans to move its corporate headquarters to Baton Rouge,
LA. In 2015 the company announced the relocation of its headquarters from
Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Expansion In July 1994, The Albemarle Corporation
expanded itself by acquiring the Asano Corporation, a sales and marketing
company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The corporation sold both its electronic
materials business and its alpha olefins, polyalphaolefins and synthetic
alcohols businesses by 1996, and in 1997 formed an alliance with Mitsui Toatsu
Chemicals, Inc. That same year, the corporation was restructured to form two
global business units: Polymer Chemicals and Fine Chemicals.
In 1998, the Albemarle Corporation bought a custom manufacturing and
oilfield chemicals plant in Teesport, England. In the same year, a joint
venture was signed between Jordan Dead Sea Industries Company, Arab Potash
Company, and one of Albemarle Corporation's subsidiaries. Another
joint venture was signed in 2000 by the corporation and Jinhai Chemical and
Industry Company, located in China. More chemical plants were opened within the
next five years in Port-de-Bouc, France and Bergheim, Germany.
Since 2000, Albemarle Corporation has acquired assets of Ferro Corporation's
PYRO-CHEK flame retardant business; Martinswerk GmbH; the custom and fine
chemicals businesses of ChemFirst Inc.; the Ethyl Corporation's fuel and
lubricant antioxidants business; the phosphorus-based polyurethane flame
retardants businesses of Rhodia; Atofina S.A.'s bromine fine chemicals business;
Taerim International Corporation, and the refinery catalyst business of Akzo
Nobel N.V. Also in 2000, Albemarle Corporation,
Cytec Industries Inc., and GE Specialty Chemicals, Inc., a subsidiary of General
Electric Company, announced their intention to form a new
business-to-business internet joint venture, PolymerAdditives.com. The
creation of this venture was intended to help provide materials faster and more
efficiently directly from trusted suppliers.
In the years following, Albemarle has continuously driven value through its
growth and innovation, particularly in its catalysts business. Albemarle
acquired its refinery catalysts platform from Akzo Nobel N.V.in 2004 with sites
and/or joint ventures in the Netherlands, Houston, France, Brazil,
Japan and Singapore. In partnership with UOP, Albemarle created the
Hydroprocessing Alliance in 2006 to deliver integrated refinery solutions
and innovative hydroprocessing technologies and catalysts to the
refining industry. Albemarle continued its international
expansion in 2007, opening a new regional sales office in Dubai to meet
growing market needs in India and the Middle East. In 2008, Albemarle and
Weifang Sinobrom Import and Export Company, Ltd. reached an agreement in
principle to form a new joint venture that will combine the existing business
of Sinobrom, a leading marketer of bromine derivatives in China, with
Albemarle's global bromine expertise in the specialty chemical industry, forming
Sinobrom Albemarle Bromine Chemicals Company Ltd. in 2009, Albemarle and
Saudi Basic Industries Corporation Affiliate, TAYF, create Saudi
Organometallic Chemicals Company, a Strategic Catalysts Joint Venture, to
build a world-scale organometallics production facility strategically
located in the Persian Gulf industrial city of Al-Jubail.
In 2012, Albemarle introduced its Electronic Materials business unit and
expanded its production capabilities for finished polyolefin catalysts in Baton
Rouge. Albemarle also expanded its South Haven API production site and upgraded
its multi-product cGMP active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing
facility. In 2014, Albemarle completed the sale of its antioxidant, ibuprofen
and propofol businesses to SI Group, allowing an increased focus on its
bromine and catalyst franchises. Acquisition of Rockwood Holdings
In July 2014 Albemarle and Rockwood Holdings, Inc. announced a definitive
agreement under which Albemarle would acquire all outstanding shares of
Rockwood in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $6.2 billion.
The acquisition made Albemarle one of the world's premier specialty chemicals
companies, with market-leading positions across four high-margin businesses:
lithium, catalysts, bromine and surface treatment.
Albemarle completed the acquisition in January 2015, expanding its customer
reach as well as increasing its diversity across end markets,
technologies and geographies. As a result of the acquisition, Albemarle
currently employs approximately 6,900 people and serves customers in
approximately 100 companies. In the wake of completing the
acquisition, Albemarle announced it would realign its global business units:
Chemetall Surface Treatment, Refining Solutions and Performance Chemicals.
Chemetall supplies supply specialty chemicals, with a focus on processes for
the surface treatment of metals and plastics. Refining Solutions provides
catalysts that can be used through the entire refinery process. Performance
Chemicals will combine the lithium, aluminum alkyls and derivative catalysts
businesses with Albemarle’s existing Performance Chemicals global business
unit. Manufactured Products
Though beginning as a blotting paper manufacturer, The Ethyl Corporation
finally abandoned paper manufacturing when it sold Oxford Paper in 1976. Since
the late 1990s, Albemarle Corporation has successfully manufactured bromine in
countries such as Jordan and France. Albemarle Corporation became a global
leader in the flame-retardant chemicals technologies, with production plants all
across the globe in the United States, China, the Netherlands, Belgium,
Germany, France, Austria, and the United Kingdom. The corporation also has a line
of antioxidants and blends which concentrate on improving storage life
and stability of fuel and other lubricant products. The acquisition of
the phosphorus-based chemistry of Rhodia S.A. included products used in rigid and
flexible polyurethane foam applications and ammonium polyphosphate products.
Later on, the acquisition of Martinswerk GmbH added pigments for paper
applications, aluminum oxides used for flame-retardant, polishing agent,
catalyst, and niche ceramic applications, as well as magnesium
hydroxide mainly used as a flame-retardant.
Since the acquisition of the Catalysts Division of AkzoNobel in 2004, Albemarle
Corporation is one of the world's largest producers of hydro processing
catalysts and fluidized catalytic cracking catalysts used in the petroleum
refining industry. Production locations are: Bayport, Texas and Amsterdam,
Netherlands. Following the successful acquisition of
Rockwood Holdings in 2015, Albemarle has become a leading producer of lithium
products, including lithium salts and metals, organo-lithium and cesium and
special metals. Albemarle continues to penetrate lithium-based energy storage
products, including e-mobility batteries and batteries for the automotive
industry. Albemarle is also a global provider of surface treatment products
and services drive by diverse end markets, including automotive OEM,
aerospace, heavy equipment and more. Sustainability
Albemarle's new businesses focus on the manufacture of custom and proprietary
fine chemicals and chemical services for the pharmaceutical and life sciences
industries. Albemarle is one of the largest global producers of ibuprofen.
With the Alternative Fuel Technologies division, Albemarle strives to establish
itself as a major player in the fast-growing market of biofuels:
gas-to-liquids, coal-to-liquids. It recently announced the acquisition of
Sorbent Technologies Corporation, whose proprietary technology controls mercury
emissions from coal-fired power plants. Albermarle was one of the three
different chemical companies that backed the Citizens for Fire Safety industry
group that influenced fire-safety policy by lobbying for flame retardant use in
consumer products like furniture and baby products.
References External links
Official website Albemarle SEC Filings