Susan E. Alderton
Chief Financial Officer
(281) 423-3332
Houston, Texas – March 20, 2001 - NL Industries, Inc. (NYSE:NL) announced that its titanium dioxide producing subsidiary, Kronos, Inc., had a fire at its Leverkusen, Germany 35,000 metric ton sulfate-process TiO2 plant this morning. No employees were injured nor was there any environmental damage. Due to the fire and the abrupt shutdown, damages to the sulfate plant are expected to be extensive and may require the rebuilding of the plant. The fire did not enter the 125,000 metric ton chloride-process TiO2 plant at the site, but did damage certain support equipment necessary to operate that plant. The chloride-process plant has been closed as damage to surrounding support facilities is assessed, with start-up preliminarily estimated to occur in May.
NL said that it anticipates that the loss will be covered by property and business interruption insurance, but the effect on the financial results of the Company on a quarter-to-quarter basis or a year-to-year basis will depend on the timing and amount of insurance recoveries. Based on the information currently available, the Company believes that the impact of the incident on its financial results in 2001 will be small and should not exceed $.20 per share.
NL Industries, Inc. is a major international producer of titanium dioxide pigments with an annual production capacity (prior to the Leverkusen incident) of 450,000 metric tons.
The statements in this release relating to matters that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that represent management's beliefs and assumptions based on currently available information. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "believes," "intends," "may," "will," "should," "anticipates," "expects," "estimates," or comparable terminology or by discussions of strategy or trends. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot give any assurances that these expectations will prove to be correct. Such statements by their nature involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the cyclicality of the titanium dioxide industry, global economic conditions, global productive capacity, customer inventory levels, changes in product pricing, changes in product costing, changes in foreign currency exchange rates, competitive technology positions, operating interruptions (including, but not limited to, labor disputes, leaks, fires, explosions, unscheduled downtime and transportation interruptions), recoveries from insurance claims, the ultimate resolution of pending or possible future lead pigment litigation and legislative developments related to the lead paint litigation, the outcome of other litigation, and other risks and uncertainties detailed in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Should one or more of these risks materialize (or the consequences of such a development worsen), or should the underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from those forecasted or expected. The Company assumes no duty to update any forward-looking statements.