Albemarle Celebrates Grand Opening of Shared Services Center in Budapest, Hungary

Company to Shift Many of its Business Processes to its "Center of Excellence" to Increase Efficiencies, and Drive Improved Service Levels to Albemarle's Customers

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana, June 1, 2010 - Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB) a global leader in delivering
innovative specialty chemicals, clean energy solutions and outstanding
sustainability practices, celebrated the Grand Opening of its global shared
services center in Budapest, Hungary during a reception held at the facility
last week.

(Logo: www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050801/ALBEMARLELOGO )

Known as Albemarle's Center of Excellence (ACE), the facility was
developed as part of the company's "Project One Albemarle" initiative
designed to standardize and streamline the company's global processes. The
result will be one automated, scalable global platform for Albemarle's
business which will reduce costs, improve productivity and better support the
company's long-term growth.

"Albemarle's Center of Excellence is a critical component of our vision
to transform the company into a stronger, more efficient organization," said
Luke Kissam, company president. "We took a very close look at certain areas
of our business processes and applied a LEAN manufacturing model to these
activities. We identified complexities and inconsistencies in our processes
and set out to simplify, standardize and automate them. Now, we're beginning
the implementation phase. In the future, we will assess the implementation
and start the entire process over, resulting in a circle of continuous
improved productivity."

Albemarle established specific criteria to select the most beneficial
location to house the ACE facility. After an exhaustive search that included
several areas of Eastern Europe, the company ultimately chose Hungary because
of several factors including:

    - The level of government and community support and engagement
    - The close proximity to a well-educated and experienced employee base
      with the required skills and expertise to drive the Center's success
    - The city's premier location which will properly support the company's
      objectives and also provides an innovative and energetic working
      environment for the ACE employees

Located in the Capital One Square building in a premier section of
Budapest, the new ACE facility boasts a contemporary, clean design. Complete
with ergonomic furniture, state-of-the-art technologies and modern amenities,
the space is designed to attract potential employees and foster a dynamic
work environment that inspires collaboration and creativity. The building was
recently recognized by Construction & Investment Magazine as the "Best Office
Building Development of 2009."

"At Albemarle, our focus is on performance excellence in everything we
do," said J. Duncan Johnson, Managing Director of the company's Hungarian
operations. "We wanted to create a dynamic, exciting environment that would
promote innovation, creativity and ingenuity as well as visually support the
sustainability values of our company. Our partners really understood what we
were trying to achieve and were instrumental in helping us develop a work
space that inspires pride and drives results."

About Albemarle

Albemarle Corporation, headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a
leading global developer, manufacturer, and marketer of highly-engineered
specialty chemicals for consumer electronics, petroleum refining, utilities,
packaging, construction, automotive/transportation, pharmaceuticals, crop
protection, food-safety and custom chemistry services. The Company is
committed to global sustainability and is advancing its eco-practices and
solutions in its three business segments, Polymer Solutions, Catalysts and
Fine Chemicals. Corporate Responsibility Magazine recently selected Albemarle
to its prestigious "100 Best Corporate Citizens" list for 2010. Albemarle
employs approximately 4,000 people and serves customers in approximately 100
countries. To learn more, visit www.albemarle.com.

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995: Statements in this press release regarding Albemarle
Corporation's business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking
statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of such
risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from
those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the
Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Media: Stephanie Dixon, +1-225-388-7904, Stephanie.Dixon at albemarle.com, or Investor Relations: Sandra Rodriguez, +1-225-388-7654, Sandra.Rodriguez at albemarle.com