Baton Rouge, La.-based Albemarle Corp. has released the statement below highlighting the impact of Hurricane Gustav on its operations in the city.

"As you may be aware, Hurricane Gustav struck the State of Louisiana on Monday, September 1st with Baton Rouge taking a particularly hard hit with winds nearing 100 m.p.h. Mass power outages have been reported throughout the region and communication is extremely difficult as phone lines are down and systems are overwhelmed.

"Albemarle's Corporate office in downtown Baton Rouge and the company's Process Development Center (PDC) are both currently without power and there is no indication as to when power might be restored at either location. Albemarle's computer operations center in our downtown Baton Rouge office is currently operating on back-up generator power and Albemarle personnel at our PDC facility are attempting to bring in generators in an effort to restart essential operations. Some of the products that are manufactured at the PDC facility may be affected by the power outage but it is too soon to determine whether this will be the case or estimate the level of impact. These products include Saytex HP 7010, the only polymer additives product potentially affected, as well as the following polyolefin catalysts; MAO, organoborons, metallocenes, supported catalysts, and ZieglerNatta catalysts.

"Albemarle remains committed to upholding the premier level of customer service our clients have come to expect. Therefore we have shifted our customer services operation to Albemarle's Clear Lake, Texas facility to ensure phone services for our customers continues to operate smoothly. Please continue to contact our Customer Services department at 1-800-535-3030 to place orders or check the status of existing orders. Operating conditions in Baton Rouge are extremely tenuous but we hope to begin shipping products from our Process Development Center within the next 36-48 hours.

"We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause our customers and assure you that we are doing everything within our power to remedy this situation as quickly as possible. Thank you in advance for your patience and please continue to visit our website or contact our CS reps for further updates.

"To our Louisiana employees, please continue to follow public safety recommendations and proper emergency response procedures in the wake of this storm. Thank you and be safe."