Culbertson Named President OF T.I.C. Executive Committee.

GREENVILLE, S. C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 5, 1999--

Charles M. Culbertson II, President and Chief Operating Officer of KEMET Corporation (Nasdaq/NM: KMET), has been named President of the Tantalum-Niobium International Study Center (T.I.C.) Executive Committee.

The Tantalum-Niobium International Study Center (T.I.C.) was formed in 1974 by a group of tantalum producers to promote uses of tantalum and to set up a statistics-gathering system. They were soon joined by processors and consumers, including major capacitor makers and other companies with tantalum interests. Niobium was added to the organization's objectives (and its name) in 1986 in recognition of the overlap in production and application of these two elemental metals. Today, the organization includes member companies ranging from raw material suppliers to superconductor manufacturers, and from capacitor manufacturers to companies that use capacitors in their finished products.

The T.I.C. is managed by an Executive Committee with members from all segments of the industry. It holds two meetings a year--one in the spring at its headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and a second one in the fall as a guest of one or more of its members. Previous meetings have spanned the globe in Perth, Australia; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Phuket, Thailand; Vienna, Austria; Aizu Wakamatsu, Japan; Goslar, Germany; and, in October 1996, Greenville, South Carolina, hosted by KEMET Corporation.

The largest single use of tantalum is as a powdered metal used in the production of capacitors, taking advantage of its unique electrical properties. Other applications include cutting tools, pure or alloyed tantalum metal for corrosion- or heat-resistant chemical plant construction, and, as an ingredient of superalloys, for aircraft and spacecraft engines. Niobium, which lacks tantalum's unique electrical properties, is used primarily in stainless, structural and heat-resistant steels, especially high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels. When alloyed with titanium or tin, niobium acts as a superconductor, and is used in the super-conducting coils of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment for medical diagnosis. Other uses include optical glass and lenses, and high-refractive index glass.

KEMET Corporation, headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina, is the largest manufacturer of solid tantalum capacitors in the world and the second largest manufacturer of multilayer ceramic capacitors in the United States. KEMET's common stock is listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market's National Market under the symbol KMET. Company information is available via the Internet (http://www.kemet.com).