Press Release

LATROBE, Pa., April 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Kennametal Inc. (NYSE: KMT) today announced that William Hsu has been elected vice president and chief technical officer. Dr. Hsu comes to Kennametal from E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Company, Inc., where he most recently served as vice president of Technology, Sustainable Growth and Americas DuPont Engineering and had just been promoted to chief technology officer, Dupont Performance Materials.

At DuPont, Dr. Hsu held a number of senior-level Research, Development, & Engineering positions, driving process, innovation, and results globally. In his most recent role at DuPont, Dr. Hsu increased new product sales as a percentage of revenue from 9.8 percent in 1999 to 23 percent for 2003.

Dr. Hsu will lead Kennametal's global research and development effort, an organization that over the past four years has helped Kennametal increase its new product sales as a percentage of revenue from 17 percent to over 40 percent for fiscal year 2003.

"Bill comes to us from one of the leading R&D organizations in the world," said Markos I. Tambakeras, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Kennametal. "He shares with us a passion for growing new product sales as a percentage of revenue. Further, Bill is an experienced global leader who brings the type of focus and discipline to new product development that leads to repeatable, sustainable success. His P&L experience will enable Kennametal to further improve our focus on profitable growth through innovation."

Born in China and raised in Hong Kong, Dr. Hsu earned his Ph.D from the University of California, Berkeley, and was appointed Distinguished Alumni Lecturer, Golden Anniversary, Chung Chi College, the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2002. He is married and has two grown children.

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 13,500 employees worldwide, the company's annual sales approximate $1.9 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.