COLUMBIA, Md. - (Business Wire) Grace Davison, an operating segment of W. R. Grace & Co.
[NYSE:GRA
], has announced that, effective August 1, 2008, it is implementing price increases and/or surcharges of up to 20% across product lines, as existing contracts allow. This move is in response to unprecedented raw material and energy inflationary pressures and is in addition to specific product price increases implemented by Grace Davison product groups earlier in 2008. Energy and key raw material costs supporting the Grace Davison product portfolio include metals, inorganic chemicals and hydrocarbon materials
. “We continue to drive improvements in productivity and processing efficiencies, which have only partially offset this extraordinary and volatile inflation,” said Greg Poling, President of Grace Davison. “Previous measures are insufficient against the current trend of rapidly escalating costs. We will continue to work closely with our customers to provide our high level of product quality and technical support, and to assist them with managing their own inflationary pressures.”
Grace is a leading global supplier of catalysts and other products to petroleum refiners; catalysts for the manufacture of plastics; silica-based engineered and specialty materials for a wide-range of industrial applications; sealants and coatings for food and beverage packaging, and specialty chemicals, additives and building materials for commercial and residential construction. With annual sales of more than $3.1 billion, Grace has about 6,500 employees and operations in over 40 countries. For more information, visit Grace's web site at www.grace.com.
This announcement contains forward-looking statements, that is, information related to future, not past, events. Such information generally includes the words “believes,” “plans,” “intends,” “targets,” “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “continues” or similar expressions. For these statements, Grace claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Grace is subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements or that could cause other forward-looking information to prove incorrect. Factors that could cause actual results to materially differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements include: Grace's bankruptcy, plans of reorganization proposed by Grace and others, Grace's legal proceedings (especially the Montana criminal proceeding and environmental proceedings), the cost and availability of raw materials and energy, Grace’s unfunded pension liabilities, costs of environmental compliance, risks related to foreign operations, especially, security, regulation and currency risks and those factors set forth in Grace's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, quarterly report on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K, which have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and are readily available on the Internet at www.sec.gov. Reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date thereof. Grace undertakes no obligation to publicly release any revisions to the forward-looking statements contained in this announcement, or to update them to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this announcement.
Grace Davison
Media Relations
William Corcoran
T + 1 410.531.4203
E william.corcoran@grace.com
or
Investor Relations
Susette Smith
T + 1 410.531.4590
E susette.smith@grace.com
