Albemarle Earns Quality Award From Asahi-Thermofil For Flame Retardant Supply

BATON ROUGE, La. -- January 24, 2001 -- Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), a leading producer of flame retardants, has been awarded the Supplier Performance Award for 2000 by Asahi-Thermofil, Inc., a leading supplier of thermoplastic resins for thermoplastic engineering materials.

Asahi-Thermofil, formerly known as Thermofil, was acquired in July 2000 by Asahi Kasei Corporation, one of the world's largest chemical companies.

Only five of the more than 150 companies that supply Asahi-Thermofil earned the resin maker's Supplier Performance award, which is based on nine criteria including product quality and delivery timeliness. Albemarle, one of the five recipients, supplies Asahi-Thermofil with flame retardants produced in Magnolia, Arkansas. The award is particularly significant because Albemarle's manufacturing facilities experienced especially strong demand during the award year.

The Supplier Performance Award is Albemarle's second top quality award from a major chemical company in the past few months. Albemarle also received a supplier excellence award from Eastman Chemical Company in 2000 for supply of flame retardants and aluminum alkyls.

"Albemarle treats all the measures of our customers very seriously, as this is the way to true customer satisfaction," said Romesh Juneja, Global Director of Quality for Albemarle. "This award from Asahi-Thermofil indicates that our customer-focused quality efforts are paying off. We plan to continue to excel in delivering total value to our customers."

Asahi Kasei is a world-class chemical company with over $11 billion in annual sales. In 1999, Asahi Kasei was the 172^nd largest company in the world. The company employs 29,263 people worldwide in operations including fibers, textiles, construction materials, chemicals and plastics. For more information on Asahi-Thermofil, visit www.thermofil.com. For more information on Asahi Kasei consult www.asahi-kasei.co.jp/asahi/english/home.htm.

A global supplier of specialty and fine chemicals that enhance consumer products, Albemarle Corporation serves markets for polymers, surfactants and biocides, pharmaceuticals, agricultural chemicals, photographic chemicals, water treatment, oilfield chemicals and petroleum products.