Alain Belda Cost Quotations

Global manufacturing weakness has persisted longer than we anticipated, ... In particular, aerospace, industrial gas turbine and telecommunication markets remained soft, reinforcing the need to increase the scope of our cost savings and restructuring initiatives.

Looking to the fourth quarter, we expect to continue to benefit from recent acquisitions, our cost reduction program, and the seasonal strength of our packaging and consumer business, ... However, we also expect the softness to continue in the construction, transportation, building and distribution markets and see no relief from the higher energy prices.

While we are still fighting inflationary pressures, cost increases have slowed from last year, and our restructuring and efficiency initiatives have helped strengthen profitability.

Despite significantly higher energy prices which offset more favorable metal prices, we achieved solid cost savings results from the restructuring undertaken over the last two years...,