About Albemarle

Albemarle Corporation is a leading global developer, manufacturer and marketer of highly-engineered specialty chemicals that are designed to meet customers’ needs across a diverse range of end markets. The end markets the company serves include energy storage, petroleum refining, consumer electronics, construction, automotive, lubricants, pharmaceuticals and crop protection. The company leads the world in transforming essential resources into critical ingredients for mobility, energy, connectivity, and health. The company’s purpose is to enable a more resilient world. The company partners to pioneer new ways to move, power, connect, and protect. The end markets the company serves include grid storage, automotive, aerospace, conventional energy, electronics, construction, agriculture and food, pharmaceuticals and medical devices. As of December 31, 2023, the company served approximately 1,900 customers in approximately 70 countries. Business Segments During 2023, the company managed and reported its operations under three segments: Energy Storage, Specialties and Ketjen. Energy Storage segment Energy Storage business pioneers better lithium use through reliable supply and consistent quality. The company develops and manufactures a broad range of basic lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, and lithium chloride. Lithium is a key component in products and processes used in a variety of applications and industries, which include lithium batteries used in consumer electronics and electric vehicles, power grids and solar panels, high performance greases, specialty glass used in consumer appliances and electronics, organic synthesis processes in the areas of steroid chemistry and vitamins, various life science applications, as well as intermediates in the pharmaceutical industry, among other applications. In addition to developing and supplying lithium compounds, the company provides technical services, including the handling and use of reactive lithium products. The company also offers its customers recycling services for lithium-containing by-products resulting from synthesis with organolithium products, lithium metal and other reagents. The company plans to continue to focus on the development of new products and applications. Raw Materials and Significant Supply Contracts The company obtains lithium by purchasing lithium concentrate from its 49%-owned joint venture, Windfield Holdings Pty. Ltd. (Windfield), which directly owns 100% of the equity of Talison Lithium Pty. Ltd., a company incorporated in Australia (Talison) that owns the Greenbushes mine, and from its 50%-owned unincorporated joint venture, MARBL Lithium Joint Venture (MARBL) in Western Australia, which owns the Wodgina hard rock lithium mine project (Wodgina); and through solar evaporation of its ponds at the Salar de Atacama, in Chile, and in Silver Peak, Nevada. In addition, the company holds mineral rights in defined areas of Kings Mountain, North Carolina with available lithium resources and it owns undeveloped land with access to a lithium resource in Antofalla, within the Catamarca Province of Argentina. Specialties segment Specialties business optimizes the company’s portfolio of bromine and highly specialized lithium solutions. The company’s Specialties business serves a variety of industries, including energy, mobility, connectivity, and health. Specialty products are essential in both internal combustion and electric vehicles, from high-voltage cables and powertrains to airbags and tires. The company enables digital innovation focused on safety and reliability, including fire safety compounds. The company’s fire safety technology enables the use of plastics in high performance, high heat applications by enhancing the flame resistant properties of these materials. End market products that benefit from its fire safety technology include plastic enclosures for consumer electronics, printed circuit boards, wire and cable products, electrical connectors, textiles and foam insulation. In energy, infrastructure for renewable grid and electrified transport is enabled by its fire safety solutions. In health, the company’s lithium specialties products are precursors for many pharmaceuticals, while bromine specialties are used to help ensure safer food and water supplies. Other bromine-based specialty chemicals products include elemental bromine, alkyl bromides, inorganic bromides, brominated powdered activated carbon and a number of bromine fine chemicals. The company’s value-added lithium specialties products include butyllithium and lithium aluminum hydride. The company also develops and manufactures cesium products for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, and zirconium, barium and titanium products for various pyrotechnical applications, including airbag initiators. A number of customers of the company’s Specialties business operate in cyclical industries, including the consumer electronics and oil field industries. As a result, demand from the company’s customers in such industries is also cyclical. Competition The company’s most significant competitors are Lanxess AG and Israel Chemicals Ltd, as well as producers in India and China. Raw Materials and Significant Supply Contracts The company’s bromine production operations in Arkansas are supported by an active brine rights leasing program. In addition, through the company’s 50% interest in Jordan Bromine Company Limited (JBC), a consolidated joint venture with operations in Safi, Jordan, it acquires bromine that is originally sourced from the Dead Sea. Ketjen segment Three main product lines in this segment are Clean Fuels Technologies (CFT), which is primarily composed of hydroprocessing catalysts (HPC) together with isomerization and akylation catalysts; fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts and additives; and performance catalyst solutions (PCS), which is primarily composed of organometallics and curatives. The company offers a wide range of HPC products, which are applied throughout the oil refining industry. Their application enables the upgrading of oil fractions to clean fuels and other usable oil feedstocks and products by removing sulfur, nitrogen and other impurities from the feedstock. In addition, they improve product properties by adding hydrogen and in some cases improve the performance of downstream catalysts and processes. The company continuously seeks to add more value to refinery operations by offering HPC products that meet its customers’ requirements for profitability and performance in the very demanding refining market. The company provides its customers with customized FCC catalyst systems, which assist in the high yield cracking of refinery petroleum streams into derivative, higher-value products such as transportation fuels and petrochemical feedstocks like propylene. The company’s FCC additives are used to reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide in FCC units and to increase liquefied petroleum gas olefins yield, such as propylene, and to boost octane in gasoline. The company offers unique refinery catalysts to crack and treat the lightest to the heaviest feedstocks while meeting refinery yield and product needs. Within its PCS product line, the company manufactures organometallic co-catalysts (e.g., aluminum, magnesium, and zinc alkyls) used in the manufacture of alpha-olefins (e.g., hexene, octene, decene), polyolefins (e.g., polyethylene and polypropylene), and electronics. The company’s curatives include a range of curing agents used in polyurethanes, epoxies and other engineered resins. There were more than 700 refineries world-wide as of December 31, 2023. The company expects to continue to see some less profitable, typically smaller, refineries shutting down and, over the long-term, being replaced by larger scale and more complex refineries, with growth concentrated in the Middle East and Asia. Oil refinery utilization continues to return to more typical rates after low refinery utilization during the COVID pandemic periods. Advances in sustainable aviation fuels, petroleum products and renewable diesel are expected to continue. The company estimates that there are approximately 600 FCC units being operated globally, each of which requires a constant supply of FCC catalysts. In addition, the company estimates that there are approximately 4,000 HPC units being operated globally, each of which typically requires replacement HPC catalysts once every one to four years. Competition The company’s major competitors in the CFT catalysts market include Shell Catalysts & Technologies, Advanced Refining Technologies and Haldor Topsoe. The company’s major competitors in the FCC catalysts market include W.R. Grace & Co., BASF Corporation and China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec). In the PCS market, the company’s major competitors include Nouryon, Lanxess AG and Arxada. Sales, Marketing and Distribution The company has an international strategic account program that uses cross-functional teams to serve large global customers. The company also utilizes commissioned sales representatives and specialists in specific market areas when necessary or required by law. Intellectual Property The company’s intellectual property, including its patents, licenses and trade names, is an important component of its business. As of December 31, 2023, the company owned more than 1,600 active patents and more than 550 pending patent applications in key strategic markets worldwide. The company also has acquired rights under patents and inventions of others through licenses, and it licenses certain patents and inventions to third parties. Regulation The company’s business is subject to a broad array of employee health and safety laws and regulations, including those under the OSHA. The company’s business and its customers are subject to significant requirements under the European Community Regulation for the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH). REACH imposes obligations on European Union manufacturers and importers of chemicals and other products into the European Union to compile and file comprehensive reports, including testing data, on each chemical substance, and perform chemical safety assessments. Additionally, substances of high concern, as defined under REACH, are subject to an authorization process. Environmental Regulation The company is subject to such laws, including the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, commonly known as CERCLA or Superfund, in the U.S., and similar foreign and state laws. History Albemarle Corporation was founded in 1887. The company was incorporated in Virginia in 1993.