APAC Offers Assistance to Local Communities

APAC Offers Assistance to Local Communities

ATLANTA, Sept. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ashland Paving And Construction, Inc. (APAC), a subsidiary of Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) has announced it sustained minimal business impact from Hurricane Katrina, and that it will offer assistance to affected communities.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040113/ASHLANDLOGO )

"Our first priority is the safety and well being of our employees. As we move through the weeks ahead we also are prepared to furnish what resources we can to help the communities where we operate," said Garry Higdem, APAC president.

The effect of Hurricane Katrina on APAC's operations was minor according to Higdem. "The impact from Katrina was confined to some of our Mississippi division assets and operations, and our company has no operations in Louisiana. Because our company is spread among 14 Southern and Midwestern states the impact from the storm represents less than 1 percent of our total APAC operations," said Higdem.

Among the top-ranking transportation construction contractors, APAC's assets consist of 93 aggregate production facilities, including 36 permanent operating quarry locations; 31 ready-mix concrete plants; 226 hot-mix asphalt plants and more than 13,000 pieces of mobile equipment. The APAC companies are wholly owned subsidiaries of Ashland Inc.

Ashland Inc. (NYSE:ASH) is a Fortune 500 transportation construction and chemical company providing products, services and customer solutions throughout the world.

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040113/ASHLANDLOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: Ashland Inc.

CONTACT: Communications Manager, Deborah Galloway of Ashland Inc.,
+1-770-392-5352, or dlgalloway@ashland.com

Web site: http://www.ashland.com/

Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/065263.html

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