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.

SOURCE  Ashland Inc.
    -0-                             09/01/2005
    /CONTACT:  Communications Manager, Deborah Galloway of Ashland Inc.,
+1-770-392-5352, or dlgalloway@ashland.com /
    /Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040113/ASHLANDLOGO
             AP Archive:  http://photoarchive.ap.org
             PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com /
    /Company News On-Call:  http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/065263.html /
    /Web site:  http://www.ashland.com /
    (ASH)
CO:  Ashland Inc.; Ashland Paving And Construction, Inc.; APAC
ST:  Kentucky, Ohio, Georgia
IN:  OIL CHM TRN CST
SU:
AK-JE
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3165 09/01/2005 16:49 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995:
Statements in this press release regarding Ashland's business which are not historical
facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a
discussion of such risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from
those contained in the forward-looking statements, see "Risk Factors" in the Company's
Annual Report or Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year.