Albemarle Corporation is an American specialty chemicals manufacturing company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. It serves several different industries including Agriculture/Food, Automotive/EV, Aviation/Aerospace, Building/Construction, Conventional Energy, Electronics, Grid Storage, and Industrial Processes. The company reported over $5.4 Billion in revenue in 2024.
As of April 2025, Albemarle was the fourth highest grossing producer of Lithium, falling behind Rio Tinto, Sociedad Química y Minera, and Ganfeng Lithium.
Albemarle is a large developer of flame retardant chemicals technologies, with production plants in the United States, China, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Austria, and the United Kingdom. It also has a line of antioxidants and blends which concentrate on improving storage life and stability of fuel and other lubricant products. It produces products used in rigid and flexible polyurethane foam applications and ammonium polyphosphate products, pigments for paper applications, aluminium oxides used for flame-retardant, polishing, catalyst, and niche ceramic applications, as well as magnesium hydroxide mainly used as a flame-retardant. It is one of the largest producers of hydro processing catalysts (HPC) and fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) catalysts used in the petroleum refining industry. Production locations (excluding joint ventures in Brazil and Japan) are: Bayport, Texas and Amsterdam, Netherlands. Albemarle also produces fine chemicals and chemical services for the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries. The Alternative Fuel Technologies division participates in the market for biofuels, gas to liquids, and coal liquefaction.
History In 1887, Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Company was founded in Richmond, Virginia.
In the 1930s, Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Company purchased the first kraft pulp mill in the United States in Roanoke Rapids, NC.
In the 1950s, Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Company grew through acquisitions and investments in bag and box manufacturing companies and modernized its large-scale paper production machinery.
In 1969, bromine operations began in Magnolia, Arkansas.
In 1976, the company sold its remaining paper manufacturing capabilities to focus on specialty chemicals.
In February 1994, Ethyl Corporation completed the corporate spin-off of its chemical businesses to form Albemarle Corporation. Albemarle was headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, until 2008 when it announced plans to move its corporate headquarters to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
In July 1994, the company acquired the Asano Corporation, a sales and marketing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
In 1998, the company bought a custom manufacturing and oilfield chemicals plant in Teesport, England. Also in 1998, a joint venture was signed by the company, Jordan Dead Sea Industries Company, and Arab Potash.
In January 2000, the company acquired Ferro Corporation's PYRO-CHEK flame retardant business.
In June 2000, the company formed a joint venture with Jinhai Chemical and Industry Company, based in China.
In August 2000, the company launched PolymerAdditives.com, a business-to-business internet joint venture with Cytec Industries and General Electric to provide materials faster and more efficiently directly from trusted suppliers.
In 2001, it acquired Martinswerk GmbH, which it sold in 2016. It also acquired the custom and fine chemicals businesses of ChemFirst Inc. for $74 million.
In 2003, it acquired the fuel and lubricant antioxidants business of Ethyl Corporation. It also acquired the phosphorus-based polyurethane flame retardants businesses of Rhodia. It also acquired the bromine fine chemicals business of Atofina S.A.
In January 2004, the company acquired Asian flame retardants distributor Taerim International based in Seoul, South Korea.
In July 2004, Albemarle acquired the refinery catalysts platform from AkzoNobel, with sites and/or joint ventures in the Netherlands, Houston, France, Brazil, Japan and Singapore, for €615.7 million.
In 2006, in partnership with UOP, a subsidiary of Honeywell, Albemarle created the Hydroprocessing Alliance to deliver integrated refinery solutions and hydroprocessing technologies and catalysts to the refining industry. The partnership was ended in 2016.
In May 2007, Albemarle opened a regional sales office in Dubai to meet growing market needs in India and the Middle East.
In 2008, Albemarle and Sinobrom, a marketer of bromine derivatives in China, formed Sinobrom Albemarle Bromine Chemicals (Shandong) Company Ltd., a bromine-related joint venture.
In 2008, Albemarle acquired Sorbent Technologies Corporation, whose technology controls mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, for $22.5 million.
In 2009, Albemarle and TAYF, an affiliate of SABIC, created a catalysts joint venture to build a world-scale organometallics production facility in Jubail.
In January 2012, Albemarle expanded its production capabilities for finished polyolefin catalysts in Baton Rouge.
Albemarle also expanded its South Haven API production site and upgraded its multi-product cGMP active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing facility.
In 2014, Albemarle completed the sale of its antioxidant, ibuprofen and propofol businesses to SI Group.
In January 2015, Albemarle acquired Rockwood Holdings for $6.2 billion in stock. Albemarle then announced it would realign its global business units: Chemetall Surface Treatment, Refining Solutions and Performance Chemicals.
In August 2015, the company announced the relocation of its headquarters from Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Charlotte, North Carolina.
In October 2015, Albemarle announced the separation of the bromine and lithium businesses, previously together under Performance Chemicals.
In December 2016, the company sold the Chemetall Surface Treatment business to BASF for $3.2 billion.
In January 2017, the company acquired the Jiangli New Materials Science and Technology Co. lithium business for $145 million.
In October 2019, the company formed a lithium joint venture with Mineral Resources.
In June 2021, Albermarle completed the sale of its Fine Chemistry Services (FCS) business to W. R. Grace & Co. for approximately $570 million. This sale included Albemarle's operations in Tyrone, Pennsylvania and South Haven, Michigan.
In January 2023, Albemarle Corporation launched the Ketjen subsidiary. Ketjen focused on advanced catalyst solutions for the petrochemical, refining and specialty chemicals industries.
In March 2026, Albemarle Corporation completed the sale of a controlling stake in Ketjen Corporation's refining catalyst solutions business to affiliates of KPS Capital Partners, LP (KPS).
Operations
Salar De Atacama, Chile
Chile is one of the world’s highest Lithium producing countries. Annually, the country produces approximately 49,000 metric tons of lithium, which is the second highest globally only falling behind Australia. The production of Lithium in the Salt Flats of Chile has increased steadily since 2020, rising about 127%. The most common method of extraction is that of accessing lithium brine deposits. In April of 2023 there were plans by the Chilean government to nationalize the lithium industry, and to gain controlling stakes in the industry through a state-owned mining company called Codelco.
Albemarle has a mine in this area which extracts lithium from lithium brine deposits. The process of doing this includes pumping the core of the Salar de Atacama, extracting this lithium-rich brine, and moving it to wells where it can then evaporate in the sun, until the lithium concentrations reach approximately 6%. This concentrated brine is then moved by cistern trucks to a plant owned by Albemarle in Antofagasta where it is converted chemically into usable forms of lithium. These forms include technical and battery grade lithium chloride and lithium carbonate.
There are several important environmental impacts that lithium mining in the Salar de Atacama has. The first of these being the fact that the Salar de Atacama only receives about 15mm of water per year. The process of brine extraction especially, depletes water in desert, wetland, and altiplano ecosystems, all of which are present in the Salar de Atacama. The depletion of water reserves in the area could have the capacity to degrade habitats of animals including three types of flamingos, migratory water birds, lizards, bats, foxes, and many species of rodents. Additionally, the water-intensive process of brine extraction has been known to degrade surface vegetation, and to elevate daytime surface temperatures, as well as lower moisture levels in soil.
The small scale subsistence farmers who have lived in this region for far longer than the foreign lithium extraction business has been present are facing several environmental injustices because of the industry . In San Pedro de Atacama specifically, many houses have raised black flags outside of their homes to indicate the fact that they are mourning the many changes made in the area without their consent. However, because of the lack of water caused by brine extraction, the community’s crops are failing. Additionally, livestock are getting ill. This is because of the lack of water in the area as a result of the brine extraction process.
Should this continue, then the traditional ways of life of people in this area may disappear, according to locals from San Pedro de Atacama who claim that this is a major concern of theirs They have explained that "We could very easily disappear. That's everybody's fear, I think, that we cease to exist, that we disappear entirely as a culture”, one local said in an interview with NPR. Additionally, the Chilean government plans to expand the lithium mining business until the year 2060.
Albemarle processes the lithium in the industrial complex of La Negra near the coast and 27 km southeast of the port city of Antofagasta.
Silver Peak, Nevada Albemarle’s Silver Peak Lithium extraction site in Silver Peak, Nevada acts as the United States’ only active Lithium resource. The site began operations approximately 50 years ago and currently employs 60 people in order to produce technical grade lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide. Similarly to their site in Chile, Albemarle utilizes brine extraction to obtain lithium in the area. This process involves pumping of aquifers between 300 and 2000 ft. below the surface, allowing brine water to evaporate until its lithium concentration is high enough. Once the concentration is high enough the lithium will be refined at separate sites.
Silver Peak Nevada is home to many different species of plants and animals, who inhabit a wide range of habitats. These include alluvial plains, canyons, dense pinion and juniper woodlands. Other plant species include greasewood, low saltbush vegetation, and low sage brush communities. There are many large animal species present, including mule deer, bighorn sheep, raptor species like the burrowing owl and golden eagle, and rodents. Lithium mining threatens over 2,000 acres of nesting sites for various species, while also encroaching on the habitat of the federally protected Tiehm’s buckwheat wildflower, an endangered wildflower that evolved to survive on inhospitable lithium-boron rich soil.