Carpenter Backs New Trade Case to Restore Fair Trade in Stainless Wire.

READING, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 27, 1998--Carpenter Technology Corp. (NYSE:CRS) believes that a trade case filed Friday will correct pricing inequities and restore fair trade in one of its key product lines.

Carpenter has joined with nine other domestic manufacturers of stainless steel round wire in a dumping action against foreign producers in India, Japan, Korea, Spain, Taiwan and Canada, which are charged with unfairly pricing imports of stainless wire in the U.S. market.

The manufacturers petitioned the U.S. government to impose antidumping duties ranging up to 77.98 percent on imports of stainless wire from the named countries.

"We have a responsibility to our employees and shareholders to aggressively take action to correct unfair trade practices," said William J. Pendleton, Carpenter's director of corporate affairs. "We hope that this trade action will result in the elimination of illegal pricing of stainless wire in the U.S. market."

Dumping, which is selling a product in the United States at less than the price in a home market, or below cost, violates World Trade Organization rules and U.S. trade laws. The stainless steel wire petition contends that U.S. manufacturers were forced to lower their U.S. prices to harmful levels to remain competitive with imports.

Those price reductions, the U.S. manufacturers say, resulted in stagnant production levels and reduced income and employment in the domestic industry.

From 1995 to 1997, the period covered by the petition, imports of stainless steel round wire increased 26.7 percent in volume. The share of the domestic market captured by the producers named in the petition increased from 13.6 percent in 1995 to about 17 percent in 1997.

Stainless wire is a significant product line for Carpenter, and the company has invested more than $20 million in its wire-producing facilities in Reading and Orangeburg, S.C., during the last several years. Among the products created from stainless steel wire are fasteners, recessed head screws and bolts, industrial cloth, belts and conveyors, and high-pressure hoses.

Carpenter has participated successfully in other trade actions. In a pending case, Carpenter and three other domestic stainless steel rod producers petitioned the U.S. government last July to investigate dumping charges against seven countries that ship stainless steel rod to the United States.

Preliminary determinations in that case have been favorable to the U.S. producers. "Stainless rod is a feedstock for the production of stainless wire, so today's trade action is a natural follow-up to the dumping case pending against imports of stainless rod," Pendleton said.

The International Trade Commission will make a preliminary determination of injury to domestic manufacturers by May 8. A preliminary dumping determination by the U.S. Department of Commerce is expected in the fall.

Carpenter is a leading manufacturer of stainless steel, titanium and other specialty alloys, and various engineered parts.

CONTACT: Carpenter Technology

William J. Pendleton, w - 610/208-2214

h - 610/375-8182