Kennametal Inc. announced today that it will celebrate 50 years of continuous operation of its Carbidie facility, located at 425 Arona Road in Hempfield Township, Pa., on July 1, 2003. "We are very proud of the 50-year reputation of quality and customer service of our Carbidie operation," said James. R. Breisinger, President of Kennametal's Advanced Materials Solutions Group. "Over these 50 years, our employees have worked hard every day to help Carbidie attain and retain a leadership role in the industry."

The celebration will be held at the Carbidie facility on July 1, 2003. Joining Kennametal leadership at the celebration will be Congressman Tim Murphy, Senator Allen Kukovich, Hempfield Township Supervisors Robert Regola and R. Douglas Weimer as well as Westmoreland County Commissioners Tom Balya, Thomas Ceraso and P. Scott Conner, and District 10 Director of the USWA, John DeFazio.

Carbidie was incorporated on July 2, 1953 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. The founders touted the new company as "devoted exclusively to producing high- quality preformed carbide sections held to a specified tolerance, giving a delivery date and meeting it." That mission has endured and today the company enjoys a highly regarded worldwide reputation for improving its customers' manufacturing competitiveness by delivering the highest quality products on time at a competitive price for the value received.

Carbidie was acquired by Kennametal in 1997, as part of the acquisition of Greenfield Industries. Kennametal's global market presence enables Carbidie to better serve their global markets and Kennametal's world-class research and development capability allows Carbidie to leverage their market presence through advanced material technologies.

Carbidie products became the critical component of tools that manufacturers use to make a wide variety of consumer and industrial products that make our everyday lives better including razor blades, baby diapers, band-aids, pharmaceuticals, soda can snap tabs, bricks, ceramic roof tiles, and electrical motors just to name a few. The company provides world-class customer service and specializes in providing fast turnaround in this 100- percent custom business.

Over the years Carbidie has received numerous awards including the Three Rivers Environmental Award and the Pennsylvania Governor's Award for Labor- Management cooperation. Today, Carbidie operates within Kennametal's Advanced Materials Solutions Group, which consists of more than 2,000 employees with annual sales in excess of $300 million worldwide.

Kennametal Inc. aspires to be the premier tooling solutions supplier in the world with operational excellence throughout the value chain and best-in- class manufacturing and technology. Kennametal strives to deliver superior shareowner value through top-tier financial performance. The company provides customers a broad range of technologically advanced tools, tooling systems and engineering services aimed at improving customers' manufacturing competitiveness. With about 14,500 employees worldwide, the company's annual sales approximate $1.8 billion, with nearly half coming from sales outside the United States. Kennametal is a five-time winner of the GM "Supplier of the Year" award and is represented in more than 60 countries. Kennametal operations in Europe are headquartered in Furth, Germany. Kennametal Asia Pacific operations are headquartered in Singapore. For more information, visit the company's web site at www.kennametal.com.

SOURCE: Kennametal Inc.