Albemarle enters Saudi joint venture
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Baton Rouge-based Albemarle Corp. will produce chemical refining catalysts in a new Middle East joint venture, the company announced today.
Albemarle’s chief executive, Mark Rohr, said his company would contribute about $80 million to build the catalyst facility with Ibn Hayyan Plastic Co. in the Arabian Gulf industrial city of Al-Jubail. That company is part of the Saudi Basic Industries Corp.
The project will begin this quarter and open in 2012. In a conference calls with analysts today, Rohr said the deal won’t increase Albemarle’s global production of tri-ethyl aluminum significantly. But it will place 6,000 metric tons of the catalyst directly into a region where the chemical infrastructure is expanding rapidly.
In a news release, Mohamed Al-Mady — chief executive of the parent Saudi company — said the facility would provide “strategically needed security for the supply of tri-ethyl aluminum, which is critically required for our multibillion-dollar polyolefins industry.”
In earnings results released Monday, Albemarle beat analyst consensus estimates of 55 cents a share by 2 cents, and Rohr said he feels bullish about 2010. Rohr said he’s comfortable with analyst estimates of $2.39 a share for the full year in 2010, and that the company in 2011 should be back to what it expected 2009 to look like before recession set in.
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