Albemarle: Case Study - Research Paper Example

The company acquired the AkzoNobel’s Catalysts Division in 2004 and this acquisition made the company one of the leading producers of hydro processing catalysts and fluidized catalytic cracking catalysts. Presently, the company “focuses on the manufacture of custom and proprietary fine chemicals and chemical services for the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries” (Albemarle, 2011). This paper will discuss the major initiatives planned by the Albemarle Corporation for the next five years with respect to administrative, sales, licensing, and e-Commerce laws relevant to these upcoming initiatives.

Major Initiatives The three major initiatives of Albemarle Corporation for the next five years are The Project One Albemarle Global-scale hydroprocessing facility in Brazil Saudi Organometallic Chemicals Company (SOCC) With the ‘Project One Albemarle’ initiative, Albemarle Corporation plans to “standardize and streamline the company’s global processes”; and as part of this initiative, the company’s global shared service center named ‘Albemarle’s Center of Excellence’ was opened in Hungary in 2010 (Albemarle, 2012).

The company management believes that this initiative would assist the corporation to reduce its operating costs, improve productivity and profitability, and thereby promote the firm’s long term business sustainability. Similarly, a global-scale hydroprocessing facility in Brazil is another long term initiative of Albemarle Corporation. It is a joint venture of Albemarle and Petrobras, a Brazilian multinational energy corporation initiated in 2010 (Albemarle, 2012). Albemarle believes that the planned venture would improve the firm’s existing FCC catalysts production system.

Saudi Organometallic Chemicals Company (SOCC) is also a joint venture, which is equally owned by Albemarle Corporation and Saudi Specialty Chemical Company. This joint venture is intended to build a new aluminum manufacturing plant at Jubail in Saudi Arabia. The plant’s production capacity is expected to be 6,000t of triethylaluminium (TEA) per year (Chemicals Technology.com, 2011). Influence of administrative laws While analyzing the three major initiatives taken by Albemarle Corporation for the next five years, it seems that several administrative laws are likely to affect these initiatives.

Since all these initiatives are related to production and distribution of chemicals, environmental protection and health safety laws will be most relevant to them. The issues like environmental pollution, ecosystem damage, and biodiversity destruction are getting worse mainly due to thoughtless man-made interventions. Since chemical pollution is likely to affect any media (water, air, or soil), this issue can have serious impacts on humans as well as environment when toxic chemical particles are present in water bodies like oceans.

Contamination of oceans by toxic chemical components may cause the destruction of aquatic ecosystems. Evidences suggest that human health issues resulting from chemical pollution may be visible immediately following the chemical exposure. Studies indicate that chemically exposed foods would cause immediate poisoning complications in humans (Environmental Pollution Centers, 2009). Hence, administrative laws have set a range of regulations to prevent dangerous chemical exposure.