BATON ROUGE, La.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–April 11, 2005–The Shaw Group Inc. (NYSE: SGR) today announced that its Shaw Stone & Webster business unit has officially turned over a 600,000 metric tons-per-year Ethylene Plant for the BASF-YPC Integrated Petrochemical Site located in Nanjing in the People’s Republic of China. In 2000, Sinopec of China and BASF of Germany established a new joint venture company, BASF-YPC Company Limited, to build and operate a $2.7 billion world-scale integrated petrochemical complex. Shaw Stone & Webster provided engineering, procurement and construction services (EPC) for the steam cracker, which will produce 600,000 metric tons of polymer grade ethylene per year; supplying five world-scale production units in the multi-billion dollar site. In addition to the Ethylene Plant, Shaw Stone & Webster provided the Pyrolysis Gasoline, Aromatics and the Spent Caustic Treatment Units, collectively known as the Basic Chemicals Complex, on a lump sum, turnkey basis. At hand over, in excess of 20 million construction work-hours were expended on site achieving an exemplary safety record of zero lost time accidents. Shaw Stone & Webster continues to support the client on the commissioning and start-up of the plant.

J.M. Bernhard, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Shaw, said, “We are extremely pleased to officially hand custody of this important project over to BASF-YPC. We believe this ambitious venture is the largest EPC project ever completed in China by a western contractor. I am personally very proud of the leadership and commitment of our Shaw project team who successfully executed their mission with no lost time incidents recorded.”

Mr. Bernhard continued, “This achievement is an excellent example of our ability to collaborate with our clients, determine the best course of action to meet their business objectives and deliver on those objectives within the time and budget allocated. The entire Shaw team joins me in congratulating the BASF-YPC joint venture on their vision and accomplishments.”

Ethylene is an intermediate product primarily used in the production of other chemicals, particularly plastics, including polyethylene; the world’s most widely used plastic. The 600,000 metric tons-per-year steam cracker at the Nanjing site will supply five production plants, which will produce 1.7 million tons of high quality chemicals and polymers per year. These downstream products will supply the China market and are expected to substitute a portion of the current imports into China.

The Shaw Group Inc. is a leading global provider of technology, engineering, procurement, construction, maintenance, fabrication, manufacturing, consulting, remediation, and facilities management services for government and private sector clients in the power, process, environmental, infrastructure and emergency response markets. With over $3 billion in revenues, The Shaw Group is headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and employs approximately 19,500 people at its offices and operations in North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. For further information, please visit the Company’s website at www.shawgrp.com.

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a “safe harbor” for certain forward-looking statements. The statements contained herein that are not historical facts (including without limitation statements to the effect that the Company or its management “believes,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “plans,” or other similar expressions) and statements related to revenues, earnings, backlog, or other financial information or results are forward-looking statements based on the Company’s current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on the Company. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting the Company will be those anticipated by the Company. These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) and assumptions and are subject to change based upon various factors. Should one or more of such risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of our assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in the forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. A description of some of the risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements can be found in the Company’s reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Form 10-K and Form 10-Q reports, and on the Company’s web-site under the heading “Forward-Looking Statements”. These documents are also available from the Securities and Exchange Commission or from the Investor Relations department of Shaw. For more information on the company and announcements it makes from time to time on a regional basis visit our web site at www.shawgrp.com.

CONTACT: The Shaw Group Inc., Baton Rouge
Chris D. Sammons
225-932-2546

SOURCE: The Shaw Group Inc.