Albemarle starts catalyst plant in South Korea

Albemarle Corporation has commenced production at its new catalyst manufacturing plant, located at its facility in Yeosu, South Korea, today. The plant will produce commercial quantities of single site metallocene catalysts, including grades enhanced by Albemarle's proprietary ActivCat activation technology, as well as catalyst components such as methylaluminoxane (MAO).

With this new plant, the state-of-art Yeosu facility now offers a fully integrated platform able to produce lab, pilot and commercial quantities of metallocene catalysts to support the growing needs of polyolefin producers around the world, including those in the high-growth Asia-Pacific region. "The commercial unit in Yeosu is the latest in a series of investments that we have undertaken to meet the growing global demand for metallocene and single site finished catalysts. With these new assets, we are not only increasing capacity and improving our portfolio, we are bringing the finished product closer to the end-user,” said Amy Hebert, Vice President of Albemarle's Catalysts Global Business Unit.

“With metallocene catalyst production capabilities located in both Yeosu and Baton Rouge, we now offer customers around the world an unmatched security of supply. And, our integrated scale-up capabilities enable us to partner with customers for increased speed-to-market,” added said Raphael Crawford, Vice President of Albemarle's Performance Catalyst Solutions Division.