Press Release

LATROBE, Pa., Nov. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Kennametal Inc. announced today that it has presented its seventh annual Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) Excellence Awards to six Kennametal teams worldwide. These awards recognize excellence in promoting progressive environmental, health and safety initiatives, and are in alignment with Kennametal's Protecting Our Planet initiative, aimed at an accelerated focus on the environment and conservation. This year a record number of 80 nominations were received.

"We are committed to achieving excellence in Environment, Health and Safety throughout all aspects of our business," commented Kennametal Chairman, President and CEO, Carlos Cardoso. "We are dedicated to helping safeguard the health and safety of our employees and the environments in which they operate. Therefore, we are excited to recognize the teams that showcase excellence and commitment to EHS and Protecting Our Planet."

Winners of the 2008 EHS Excellence Awards were chosen by a set of six external judges representing various environmental, health and safety institutions. Nominees were judged according to their demonstration of leadership, innovation, facility collaboration, employee benefit, measurable cost and risk reduction and improvement in business operations and quality.

This year's winners are:

-- Presidential Award for Health and Safety: LYNDONVILLE, VERMONT

Lyndonville empowered a cross functional team to identify high risk ergonomic issues and develop engineering and work practice solutions that reduced lost time employee injuries.

-- Presidential Award for Environmental: LATROBE, PENNSYLVANIA & ORWELL,

OHIO

Using Kennametal's product development process, ACE (Achieving a Competitive Edge), the Latrobe and Orwell locations were able to reduce waste and chemicals necessary for production at Orwell, Ohio; Tianjin, China and Milan, Italy facilities.

-- Health and Safety Excellence Award: VICTORIA, CANADA

Kennametal's Victoria location assembled a team of employees to develop an air containment system for the powder pressing deck.

-- Health and Safety Excellence Award: HENDERSON, NORTH CAROLINA

The Henderson facility has empowered their workforce to solve operational challenges by instituting an Idea Tracker program for all employees with more than 55 percent of the ideas having an impact on EHS.

-- Environmental Excellence Award: CHILHOWIE, VIRGINIA

The Chilhowie location maximized recycling of carbide, steel and braze material through a remanufactured roofbit program, which resulted in significant cost savings.

-- Environmental Excellence Award: ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS

The Kennametal Rockford facility helped develop faster machine cycles resulting in $315,000 in annual savings for the customer. The development also allows for a reusable carbide shank that minimizes waste and saves $45,000 in carbide purchases per year.

Kennametal Inc. is a leading global supplier of tooling, engineered components and advanced materials consumed in production processes. The company improves customers' competitiveness by providing superior economic returns through the delivery of application knowledge and advanced technology to master the toughest of materials application demands. Companies producing everything from airframes to coal, from medical implants to oil wells and from turbochargers to motorcycle parts recognize Kennametal for extraordinary contributions to their value chains. Customers buy approximately $2.7 billion annually of Kennametal products and services - delivered by our 14,000 talented employees in over 60 countries - with more than 50 percent of these revenues coming from outside the United States. Visit us at www.kennametal.com. [KMT-G]

SOURCE  Kennametal Inc.
    -0-                             11/11/2008
    /CONTACT:  Media, Joy Chandler, +1-724-539-5708, or Investors, Quynh
McGuire, +1-724-539-6559, both of Kennametal Inc./
    /Web site:  http://www.kennametal.com /
    (KMT)

CO:  Kennametal Inc.
ST:  Pennsylvania
IN:  MNG ENV
SU:  AWD PSF

RF-BP
-- NETU130 --
6940 11/11/2008 16:04 EST http://www.prnewswire.com