05/20/2008 - Süd-Chemie donates water treatment plant as emergency aid for earthquake victims in China

Süd-Chemie AG, Munich is donating a mobile water treatment plant to provide supplies of drinking water directly to the victims of the earthquake in the Sichuan Province in China.

On Monday last week, the Sichuan Province in central China was shaken by a severe earthquake, as a result of which, according to official estimates, up to 50,000 people have lost their lives. According to Chinese authorities, up to five million people are currently homeless in the Sichuan Province and there is a growing risk of epidemic diseases spreading in the disaster area. Supplying the population with clean drinking water is therefore one of the major challenges for the relief workers.

Süd-Chemie has therefore decided to donate a mobile Aquacube water treatment plant for the earthquake victims. Being mobile, the plant will be transported to the relevant crisis area, where it will transform up to 1,500 litres of water per hour into clean drinking water at the required location. This Thursday, the plant is to be shipped by plane from Süd-Chemie's Johannesburg works in South Africa to China and is expected to arrive in the disaster area by the end of this week.

Süd-Chemie China has assembled a special operations team which will coordinate with central and local authorities in order to allow for quick and smooth shipment and logistics to the disaster area and to ensure smooth set up and operations of the plant.

"Given the enormous number of homeless and the growing risk of spreading diseases, providing clean drinking water to the earthquake victims has a top priority in the emergency aid in the disaster area. As a company involved in the treatment of industrial and drinking water, especially in emerging economies, it is obvious to us that in this situation, the population must be given fast and unbureaucratic assistance with the purification of drinking water. After the tsunami in Indonesia at the beginning of 2005, hurricane Katrina in the USA in mid-2005 and the earthquake in Peru in August 2007, we also provided humanitarian aid of this kind," said Dr. Hans Jürgen Wernicke, Deputy Managing Board Chairman at Süd-Chemie AG.

Munich, 20 May 2008

Enquiries to:

Süd-Chemie AG
Corporate Communications and Board Affairs
Patrick Salchow, Jochen Orlowski
Tel. +49 (0) 89 5110-250/-247

About Süd-Chemie

Süd-Chemie AG (www.sud-chemie.com) is a specialty chemicals company headquartered in Munich, Germany and operating on a worldwide scale. The common denominator of all its products and innovations is the efficient and sparing use of natural resources to enhance the quality of life for humans and the environment. Key markets served by its Adsorbents Division include the consumer-goods, packaging and foundry industries, as well as the paper and plastics industries and water treatment. Products manufactured by the Catalysts Division offer solutions for the chemical, petrochemical and refinery industries, for energy storage and hydrogen production, as well as off-gas purification. At the end of 2007, the Süd-Chemie group employed more than 5,000 people at 70 sales and production sites worldwide. In China, Süd-Chemie currently has around 500 employees at five production sites and two sales and administration offices.