Susan E. Alderton
Chief Financial Officer
(281) 423-3332
Houston, Texas – March 27, 2001 - NL Industries, Inc. (NYSE:NL) announced today that it anticipates that its 35,000 metric ton sulfate-process titanium dioxide plant in Leverkusen, Germany will be restored to full operational capacity in the latter part of the fourth quarter of 2001, and that approximately 20% of the plant's production will be restored next week primarily by utilizing excess calciner capacity at the Company's Nordenham, Germany plant. The Leverkusen plant had been damaged by a fire on March 20. NL also said that it expects its chloride-process plant at the site, which had sustained damage to support facilities, will be fully operational by mid-April 2001.
NL reiterated 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.
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.